HSBC, Europe's biggest lender, is significantly scaling down its private banking operations in West Asia, two sources told Reuters, and HSBC said its top private banker in the region had been reassigned to London.
The private bank has shrunk the number of relationship managers to around 10 from 50-60 at its peak 18 months ago, one banking source familiar with the matter said. HSBC confirmed, as one of the sources had said, that Mark Stadler, HSBC's global market head for the Middle East and Africa private bank since January 2011, had relocated to London.
He will be replaced by Sobhi Tabbara, who was previously Business Area Head for MENA and Saudi Arabia, a spokesman for HSBC in Dubai said in an emailed statement.
"We are not closing our private banking business in the Middle East, and it is not for sale. We have made a number of management changes across the private banking that mean that Mark Stadler has returned to the UK," the statement said.
The move to downsize private banking operations in the Middle East is part of a push by the UK-headquartered lender to focus more on corporate and retail banking in the region.
