HSBC IT boss to take over operations

HSBC has appointed Ken Harvey as chief technology and services officer as the bank merges the roles of chief operating officer (COO) and chief information officer (CIO).

Harvey has served as the bank's CIO since 2004, and the decision to add to his job follows the retirement of current group COO David Hodgkinson and a business focus on reducing costs.

"By combining our technology and worldwide operations more closely we can re-engineer our customers' experience of HSBC and at the same time drive down the unit cost of production," said HSBC chief executive Michael Geoghegan.

The change is effective from 1 October, when Harvey will also join the group's management board.

Before landing the post of CIO four years ago, Harvey's 20-year career at HSBC included work as vice president of the bank's Canadian operations, director of banking systems and group executive and CIO for HSBC subsidiary Household International.

Under his new role, Harvey will remain in charge of the bank's 'One HSBC' technology standardisation programme. The plan involves the migration of HSBC's global operations onto a single IT platform, and was introduced to help mitigate the bank's exposure to the credit crunch and reduce its cost base.

In August, HSBC reported a 28 per cent fall in profit for the period due to a $14bn (£7.1bn) hit caused by exposure to bad debt.

In a similar move, Alliance & Leicester group IT head Ian Buchanan was appointed to the bank's board of directors this summer and was also brought closer to its operational side.

Buchanan was made group manufacturing director, with responsibility for the bank's technology agenda as well as customer service and back-office operations.

"My role as head of IT focused on delivering customer service and end-to-end processes. Clearly part of that is how to use technology appropriately, but this is only a small part of the process," Buchanan told Computing at the ti me.

"The restructuring is a natural consequence of our overall strategy. We are looking at simplifying some of our processes and technology, and my new role takes this much further by looking at all aspects of customer service. You could argue that it starts by enabling IT-driven change."

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