Rachel Lomax, 63, has been appointed as one of two new non-executive directors of HSBC. As a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, with responsibility for monetary stability, Ms Lomax is known as feisty, formidable and an effective political operator, and so there is no doubt that she will make her voice heard on the HSBC board.
Bravo, I say! Rachel, let’s do lunch. I think a briefing from a real American is required.
As an analyst I am not blinded by the Kool-Aide and I can give you an in-briefing in twenty minutes. It will be better than calling on Sandra Derickson for an overview, and more realistic than asking anyone at HSBC North America for a point paper.
With my global experience in international banking I can be a big help. Usually travelling by U.S. Marine Corps helicopter, Navy ship or Air Force transport, I always enjoyed changing U.S. dollars to foreign money. After four or five countries it was always easy to lose track of how much money one actually had, if any. The Euro helped a little bit, but we seemed to be in the Middle East, or the jungles of South East Asia instead. I have the Saudi Riyal figured out quite well.
Since HSBC is under fire around the world I think my expertise in using every weapon in the entire Marine Corps weapons arsenal should be beneficial. Take it from me, it can also be interesting to coordinate air and naval gunfire, as long as we don’t call for fire on our own position. (At HSBC, Bill Aldinger and Bobby Mehta already tried that.)
Rachel, I think casual attire is in order. My logic is simple. If we wear blue jeans we can make cold calls on various branch offices and we’ll just act like a couple of potential borrowers. Maybe we can open an HSBC bank account or two.
It is said that you are known as feisty, formidable and an effective political operator. Politics is beneficial (no pun intended) in many ways. For instance, when a collector from India calls a U.S. borrower five times on Sunday morning before 8 AM, we could just fly to India, track the guy down, and fire him. Violation of the Fair Debt Collection Protection Act is no joke. Many people would like to snatch the annoying SOB right through the phone, all the way from India, and throttle him. While the idea has merit, it does not work. If it did we would have black-and-blue Indians all over America.
I’ve been to India, and do not want to stay long. Can we smoke on the HSBC corporate jet? If not, I don’t want to go at all.
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