Why I celebrate Stephen Green’s appointment
Many years ago, I worked as a public affairs manager for Midland Bank & HSBC. One day, about 15 years ago, I went to speak with the man in charge of the bank’s treasury and global markets, a certain Stephen Green, in his Lower Thames Street office with views on Tower Bridge. Banking was, as now, filled with a lot of men who didn’t deserve the title of gentlemen. Stephen always came over as being one who did (the man who preceded him as Chief Executive, Keith Whitson, did likewise). I can remember that he put me at my ease, although I now can’t remember why I had to speak with him.
That was the only time I spoke to Stephen Green for any length of time. But his reputation and my other contacts with him always led me to hold him in great respect. He has always been involved in charitable giving and activities, quietly and without fuss. On announcing HSBC’s results last year he attacked failings in the banking industry, which he believed had led to a “major breakdown in trust“, saying.
“There have been too many who have profoundly damaged the industry’s reputation. Compensation practices ran out of control and perverse incentives led to dangerous outcomes. There is genuine and widespread anger that the contributors to the crisis were in some cases amongst the biggest beneficiaries of the system.
“Underlying all these events is a question about the culture and ethics of the industry. It is as if, too often, people had given up asking whether something was the right thing to do, and focused only on whether it was legal and complied with the rules.”
Green is no saint and nor would he claim to be. He wouldn’t have made it to the top in business if he didn’t also have a steely determination. But he has forgone his bonuses more than once and vetoed those for HSBC’s executive directors. Banking and politics need men and women with hearts and souls, as well as brains and Stephen Green’s expected appointment as a Trade Minister is to be welcomed.
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