Bank of England's Furse to chair HSBC's British unit - Sky News

Oct (HKSE: 3366-OL.HK - news) 31 (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings Plc (HKSE: 0005.HK - news) is set to appoint Clara Furse as the chairman of its ring-fenced British business HSBC UK, a move which could be announced as early as Tuesday, Sky News reported on Monday.

Furse, a member of the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee, will oversee the British retail banking and wealth management, commercial banking and global private banking operations of the lender, Sky News said. (http://bit.ly/2fxuPwf)

In September last year, HSBC said it would rebrand its British business as HSBC UK, to distinguish its ring-fenced UK retail banking from riskier parts of the business.

Ring-fencing rules aim to avoid a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis, when banks' bad bets threatened ordinary depositors' cash, leading to big taxpayer-funded bailouts. The rules apply to all banks in Britain that have both retail and commercial or investment banking activities.

HSBC's ring-fenced bank will be headquartered in Birmingham from 2018, a year before the separation of the business has to take place.

Furse is likely to have to step down from the Financial Policy Committee as a result of the appointment, which has been approved by banking regulators, Sky News reported.

Furse is the non-executive director of Nomura Holdings Inc (Other OTC: NRSCF - news) , Vodafone Group Plc (NasdaqGS: VOD - news) , Amadeus IT Holdings SA and the Department for Work and Pensions, according to the BoE's website.

HSBC could not be immediately reached for comment. (Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; editing by Andrew Roche)