HSBC USA Inc. is dividing supervision of its East Coast banking operations between two executives.
The New York unit of HSBC Holdings PLC division said Monday that it had named its head for the Middle Atlantic region and that it was close to naming the head of its Florida operations.
Seamus McMahon resigned last month as HSBC USA’s East Coast regional president to become a consultant, HSBC said.
The London parent company, which has assets of $1.7 trillion, holds all the U.S.-chartered banking companies.
HSBC USA named Dominic O’Hagan as an executive vice president and regional president overseeing retail and commercial businesses in Washington, Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
Mr. O’Hagan has been the chief operating officer of Wells Fargo HSBC Trade Bank, a joint venture between Wells Fargo & Co. and HSBC Holdings, since July 2004. He is to start his new position Oct. 1, moving from San Francisco to Washington, and will report to Brendan McDonagh, HSBC USA’s chief operating officer.
HSBC plans to build about 10 branches in Florida in the next year. It has one branch in the Washington area and expects to open 12 more there by the end of 2007. It is also building branches in New Jersey, Connecticut, Chicago, and California.
“Washington’s internationalism is a perfect match for HSBC, which does business in 76 countries and territories around the globe,” Mr. McDonagh said in a press release issued Monday. “HSBC’s presence around the world uniquely positions us to serve the international needs of business and personal customers in and around” the nation’s capital.
HSBC entered the Washington market in 2004 after Riggs National Corp.’s oversight of some of its embassy accounts got it in trouble with regulators and created a vacuum. (PNC Financial Services Group Inc. of Pittsburgh bought Riggs in May 2005.) The $541.8 billion-asset Wachovia Corp. has been referring embassy business to HSBC through an agreement the companies reached in 2004.
HSBC USA, which has 430 branches in the United States, earlier this summer hired Carol Richardson from Chevy Chase Bank in Bethesda, Md., to manage its retail business in Washington, a new position. Ms. Richardson will report to Mr. O’Hagan.
Last week HSBC USA announced it would promote Sandy Derickson to succeed Martin Glynn as its president and chief executive officer when he retires at the end of the year. Ms. Derickson is a vice chairman of HSBC Finance Corp. in Prospect Heights, Ill.
Mr. O’Hagan, who was on vacation and unavailable for an interview Monday, has been with the company since 1988, working in Asia, the Middle East, and Canada.
