We’re becoming a simple and more agile bank

In an interview with Francine Lacqua at Bloomberg, our Group CEO, Georges Elhedery, talked about leadership, how he’s creating a more simple and agile bank that’s built for the future – and the role AI will play.

During the discussion, recorded in December 2025 as part of Bloomberg’s Leader podcast series, Georges reflected on how he started in banking, his 20-year career at HSBC, how “humbled and honoured” he was to be appointed as Group CEO and the actions he’s taking to remove complexity.

“There’s massive potential in this bank,” said Georges. “Some of it needed to be unleashed. It needed to be unlocked.”

Customer focus

When asked about the restructure, Georges said it had been done “in the most respectful way for the benefit ultimately of the firm and its customers”.

“The world is moving fast,” said Georges. “We need to move fast. Our customers are moving fast. Their needs today will be different tomorrow. Their goals today will be different tomorrow. And we need to be continuously adapting to their evolving needs and their evolving goals.”

He talked about the importance of investing in our people, their skills and capabilities, and how the bank is embracing the benefits of Gen AI for both colleagues and customers.

“Gen AI is clearly bringing something new to the equation,” added Georges. “We have more than 100 cases, of which about half are already live in production, that are transformational. And they're going to change the way we as humans operate.”

Trade corridors

In the same interview, Georges also talked about trade, how corridors are shifting, the opportunities this is creating, and how the bank is navigating geopolitical tensions.

He said that based on our internal research, the reconfiguration of trade patterns in Asia will drive foreign direct investment, employment, domestic growth, as well as trade.

Georges explained that international customers are looking for resilience in their supply chains and consumer markets for their products and services to scale their capabilities – and that “HSBC has a critical role to play”.