HSBC Holdings Plc will retain Sherard Cowper-Coles, the public affairs executive who apologized for criticizing the UK’s stance on China and igniting fresh scrutiny of HSBC’s engagement with China and the West, as a part-time consultant.
While the company has begun a search for a successor for Cowper-Coles in leading the bank’s relations with governments across the world, he will stay on as a consultant to HSBC in 2024, the firm told staff in a memo.
The former British diplomat had been preparing to leave Europe’s largest lender in the wake of a string of controversial comments on foreign policy. Cowper-Coles said at a closed-door event in London in June that the UK was “weak” by following US policy on China, and stepped down from a role on the Saudi British Joint Business Council after unfavorably contrasting Arab nations with China at a separate event in July.
He is set to work three days a week for as much as £400,000 ($491,740) a year, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named given the terms aren’t public. While Cowper-Coles’ compensation as an employee wasn’t disclosed, the bank last year paid its top 20 senior managers an average of about $6 million each.
“After many decades of public service, and more than 10 years at HSBC, Sherard Cowper-Coles has decided to retire as group head of public affairs at HSBC at the end of the year,” a spokeswoman for the bank said in an emailed statement. “We thank him for his contribution to the group and wish him well for the future.”
Cowper-Coles declined to comment through a company spokesperson.
HSBC has long relied on China, with nearly half of the firm’s average interest earning assets tied to its legal entity in the country. Cowper-Coles’s remarks, which he said were personal comments that didn’t reflect the view of HSBC, came as the US seeks to deny China a military edge by choking its tech sector with sanctions.
Cowper-Coles set up SCC Consulting Ltd. in September, listing himself as a consultant and sole director in a UK corporate filing. That month, he also resigned as a director of The British Omani Society, UK Finclusion, and as a representative of the Saudi British Joint Business Council, filings show.
As head of public affairs, Cowper-Coles oversaw public policy and government relations around the world for HSBC, advising Chairman Mark Tucker and senior executives. The bank said in last month’s memo that Paul Rankin, deputy head of its public affairs team, would replace him on an interim basis while a search took place for a permanent successor.
Before joining HSBC in 2013, Cowper-Coles worked as a senior adviser to British defense company BAE Systems Plc. He previously spent 30 years working for the UK’s Foreign Office, including stints as the country’s ambassador to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.