Stephen Keith Green, Baron Green of Hurstpierpoint (born 7 November 1948), is a British politician, former
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
Minister of State for Trade and Investment, former group chairman of
HSBC Holdings plc
HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...
, and
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
priest.
Early life and education
Stephen Green was born on 7 November 1948 to Dudley Keith Green and Dorothy Rosamund Mary Green (née Wickham).
After a private education at
Lancing College
Lancing College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding school, boarding and day school) for pupils aged 13–18 in southern England, UK. The school is located in West S ...
, near his family home in
Brighton
Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
, he attended
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and the fourth-oldest college of the university.
The college was founde ...
, obtaining a degree in
Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Philosophy, politics and economics, or politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), is an interdisciplinary undergraduate or postgraduate academic degree, degree which combines study from three disciplines. The first institution to offer degrees in P ...
(PPE) in 1966. Green's parents were active churchgoers and influenced his religious activities both as a young man and later in life; after graduating he spent a year volunteering in the
East End of London at a hostel for recovering alcoholics, a move also reputedly influenced by a visit from a Church of England vicar.
It was during his time at the hostel that he met Janian Joy, a fellow volunteer, whom he married in 1971.
In 1975 (during a
Harkness Fellowship
The Harkness Fellowship (previously known as the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship) is a program run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. This fellowship was established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several co ...
, on secondment from the Overseas Development Administration) Green also obtained a
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
(MIT).
Career
In 1971, Green began his professional life as a civil servant in the
British government
His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 's Ministry of Overseas Development (now the
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom.
The office was created on 2 ...
), where he spent the next six years.
In 1977, he joined
McKinsey & Co Inc. management consultants,
with whom he undertook assignments in Europe, North America and the Middle East.
As a result of being
headhunted, Green joined the then
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1982, initially on a two-year contract,
with responsibility for corporate planning activities. In 1985 he was put in charge of the development of the bank's global treasury operations, and in 1992 became group treasurer of HSBC Holdings plc with responsibility for the HSBC Group's treasury and capital markets businesses globally.
In March 1998 Green was appointed to the board of HSBC Holdings plc as
executive director of
Investment Banking
Investment banking is an advisory-based financial service for institutional investors, corporations, governments, and similar clients. Traditionally associated with corporate finance, such a bank might assist in raising financial capital by und ...
and Markets, responsible for the investment banking, private banking and asset management activities of the Group. He assumed additional responsibility for the group's corporate banking business in May 2002. As executive director, Green cancelled all executive bonuses in both 2001 and 2002, telling ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' in March 2003: "We took the view that a business that had not performed for the shareholder couldn't expect to receive bonuses".
The decision saw some key staff leave in protest but it also won the company some praise; ''
Institutional Investor
An institutional investor is an entity that pools money to purchase securities, real property, and other investment assets or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial banks, central banks, credit unions, government-linked ...
'' magazine quoted HSBC's then chairman,
Sir John Bond, as saying: "We had corporate clients come up to us and say, 'Thank God you've taken a stand'".
In the year before becoming chief executive, Green earned below £1m; HSBC's annual report for the period showed that none of the company's five top-earning employees was a board member. Green told ''The Guardian'' in October 2003: "Plenty of people in this organisation earn more than me. I genuinely don't care. I can hardly be described as lowly paid. Since when was money the be-all and end-all?" Asked by the newspaper's reporter Jill Treanor how he reconciled the organization's high salaries and bonuses with his religious faith, he replied: "Do I personally feel some kind of incompatibility between what I believe and being in financial services markets? I can only say no".
His appointment as group chief executive took effect on 1 June 2003. Shortly afterwards, in October 2003, HSBC announced that it would
offshore the work done by its UK finance processing centres in Birmingham, Sheffield, Brentwood and Swansea to India, Malaysia and China within two years. The move, which represented the largest such offshoring in the financial services sector at that time and would lead to the loss of 4,000 British jobs, led the UK trade union
UNIFI to warn Green that the "gloves were off". He defended the decision, telling ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''s Jill Treanor:
"If you are a responsible company like us we do need to think about this on a global basis. We have to approach this in a responsible and human way. I also have to bear in mind that people are going to get jobs in India (and elsewhere). It's wrong to pretend you can protect the existing jobs and wrong to pretend there isn't going to be change. It can't be the right response to say that emerging markets have no right to jobs." He added: "Cost minimisation cannot be the only driver of this. There is no way we want to jeopardise the quality of customer service".
Green also oversaw HSBC's acquisition of Household International, a US
subprime lender,
as well as its integration into the parent company. He later came to regret the deal,
which was the largest acquisition in a series conducted by HSBC in the five years leading up to his appointment as its chief executive.
In January 2005, Green became
chairman
The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...
of
HSBC Bank plc, the group's UK
clearing bank subsidiary, and group executive chairman in June 2006. In its July 2005 issue, ''
Bloomberg Markets
''Bloomberg Markets'' is a magazine published six times a year by Bloomberg L.P. as part of Bloomberg News. Aimed at global financial professionals, ''Bloomberg Markets'' publishes articles on the people and issues related to global financial m ...
'' magazine reported that HSBC was allowing
money laundering
Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...
by drug dealers and
state sponsors of terrorism
"State Sponsors of Terrorism" is a designation applied to countries that are alleged to have "repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism" per the United States Department of State. Inclusion on the list enables the United St ...
; the magazine alleged that this had included a transfer of $100,000 in April 2000 to the
Taliban
, leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders
, leader1_name = {{indented plainlist,
* Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013)
* Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016)
* Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...
in Afghanistan which had subsequently resulted in a fine levied by the
US Treasury Department
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current U.S. government departments.
The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and ...
. Green denied the allegations, calling them "a singular and wholly irresponsible attack on the bank's international compliance procedures".
Subsequent investigations however, confirmed that
money laundering
Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...
had taken place at
HSBC
HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...
for several years throughout Green's tenure as chief executive and chairman, chiefly for the
Sinaloa Cartel
The Sinaloa Cartel (, , after the native Sinaloa region), also known as the ''CDS'', the ''Guzmán-Loera Organization'', the ''Federation'', the ''Sinaloa Cartel'', or the Pacific Cartel, is a large, drug trafficking transnational organized cri ...
.
Green earned well over £25 million per year at the time. Green's successor as the top of HSBC, Stuart Gulliver, said "between 2004 and 2010, our anti-money laundering controls should have been stronger and more effective and we failed to spot and deal with unacceptable behaviour."
Minister of State for Trade and Investment
In September 2010, it was announced that Green would join the UK's
Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government in early 2011 as an unpaid
Minister of State for Trade and Investment
The Minister of State for Trade Policy and Economic Security, formerly Minister of State for Trade Policy and Minister of State for Trade, is a mid-level role at the Department for Business and Trade in the Government of the United Kingdom. It ...
. In order to take up his ministerial position, he stepped down as group chairman of HSBC on 3 December 2010 and was replaced by
Douglas Flint. To enable him to be accountable to Parliament, he was created a
life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...
on 16 November 2010 as Baron Green of Hurstpierpoint, of Hurstpierpoint in the County of West Sussex, and was
introduced in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
on 22 November. He was Minister of State for Trade and Investment in both the
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) was a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It was created by the Gordon Brown premiership on 5 June 2009 by the merger of the Department for Innovation, Uni ...
and the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom.
The office was created on 2 ...
from 11 January 2011 until 11 December 2013.
Aftermath
After Green's retirement from HSBC, the questions that had begun to be asked about the bank's behaviour under his leadership continued. On 23 July 2012, the
US Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...
's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a 335-page report setting out HSBC's compliance failures over a ten-year period. In the report, Senate investigators said the bank had bypassed the USA's sanctions against Iran, enabled money laundering by Mexican drug lords (chiefly for the
Sinaloa Cartel
The Sinaloa Cartel (, , after the native Sinaloa region), also known as the ''CDS'', the ''Guzmán-Loera Organization'', the ''Federation'', the ''Sinaloa Cartel'', or the Pacific Cartel, is a large, drug trafficking transnational organized cri ...
),
and had conducted business with companies with links to terrorism.
The report quoted emails copied to Green detailing such dubious transactions and alleged that the bank had continued to allow them to continue even after he and his colleagues had promised to act.
Green told
Sky News
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of ...
that he had "no case to answer" over the money laundering scandal, saying: "As and when issues were drawn to our attention, as we were seeking to grapple with the issues, we took action. I think we must acknowledge there were some failures of implementation. HSBC has expressed its regret for that. I share that regret."
Defending Green,
Lord Oakeshott
Matthew Alan Oakeshott, Baron Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay (born 10 January 1947), is a British Investment management, investment manager and member of the House of Lords, formerly sitting in Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliament as a Libera ...
, a former Treasury spokesman for the
Liberal Democrats, said: "Stephen Green was a thoughtful banker in holy orders. But if even he couldn't stop these scandals, banks like HSBC and Barclays aren't just too big to fail, they are clearly too big to control".
The Senate report prompted shadow financial secretary to the Treasury,
Chris Leslie
Christopher Michael Leslie (born 28 June 1972) is a British business executive and former politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley from 1997 to 2005 and Nottingham East from 2010 to 2019. A former member of the La ...
, to write to Green asking him to "place on the record – at the earliest opportunity – an assurance that you took every appropriate step if and when you became aware of the issues raised by this report" and asking a number of specific questions.
Leslie was unconvinced by Green's reply, in which he had written: "With regards
'sic''to the bank's efforts to address its AML (anti-money laundering) and OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) compliance issues, HSBC has expressed its regret that there were failures of implementation in these areas, and I share that regret". Leslie maintained that Green's letter failed to:
address the detailed questions about what he knew and when about these very serious issues. As a British Minister, an adviser to George Osborne on banking and a member of the Cabinet committee on banking reform, he is accountable first and foremost to Parliament. He cannot and should not hide behind "continuing discussions between HSBC and the US authorities" as a reason for failing to answer questions.
Shortly afterwards, Green failed to attend the House of Lords to answer a Labour question about the affair. The
Leader of the House of Lords
The leader of the House of Lords is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom who is responsible for arranging government business in the House of Lords. The post is also the leader of the governing party in the House of Lords who acts ...
,
Lord Strathclyde, defended Green, saying that his earlier employment with HSBC did not affect his ability to carry out his duties.
In February 2015, there was further criticism of Green and his leadership of HSBC after
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...
broadcast a ''
Panorama
A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...
'' programme entitled ''The Bank of Tax Cheats'' exposing the complicity of
HSBC's Swiss private bank, HSBC Private Banking Holdings (Suisse) SA, in helping more than 100,000 clients from over 200 countries evade tax worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
At the time of the alleged offences Green was the Swiss bank's chairman.
BBC presenter Richard Bilton confronted Green, who refused to discuss the issue saying only: "As a matter of principle I will not comment on the business of HSBC past or present". Chairwoman of the
Public Accounts Committee
A public accounts committee (PAC) is a committee within a legislature whose role is to study public audits, invite ministers, permanent secretaries or other ministry officials to the committee for questioning, and report on their findings subseque ...
,
Margaret Hodge
Margaret Eve Hodge, Baroness Hodge of Barking (, formerly Watson; born 8 September 1944), is a British politician and life peer, who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Barking from 1994 to 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she was p ...
MP, said: "Either he didn't know and he was asleep at the wheel, or he did know and he was therefore involved in dodgy tax practices. Either way he was the man in charge and I think he has got really important questions to answer".
A few days after the ''Panorama'' broadcast, Green resigned as chairman of the advisory council for banking industry body, The City UK,
saying that he did not want to damage the effectiveness of the organisation in promoting good governance and doing the right thing.
Other
Some of his prior directorships included the
Bank of Bermuda Limited,
HSBC Mexico, SA and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited. He was also chairman of
HSBC Private Banking Holdings (Suisse) SA and
HSBC North America Holdings Inc., deputy chairman of
HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt AG and was a board member of
HSBC France. In 2005 he was appointed a trustee of the
British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
, a position from which he resigned before his appointment as Minister of State. In 2014 he was appointed a trustee of the
Natural History Museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...
by the Prime Minister
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...
for a period of four years, and was elected chair by the board of trustees from 1 April 2014.
Awards
Green was shortlisted for the
Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award in 2015 where he remains in the directory of the Grassroot Diplomat Who's Who publication.
Personal life
Green is an ordained priest in the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
, having studied
theology
Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...
at
Manchester University
The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
's Northern Ordination course while in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
, and he is the author of the book ''Serving God? Serving Mammon?'' He has since described the book as "out of print and out of date".
During his time as a senior banking executive, he was known to compose his sermons while travelling around the world on business.
Green was awarded an
honorary doctor's degree
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...
from the
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...
(SOAS),
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
in 2010.
He is married to Janian and has two daughters, Suzannah and Ruth. He has a sister, Elizabeth, who lives in the US and a brother, George Francis Green, who is professor of Labour Economics and Skills Development at the
Institute of Education
The UCL Institute of Education (IOE) is the faculty of education and society of University College London (UCL). It specialises in postgraduate study and research in the field of education and is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties. Prior t ...
, University of London.
Publications
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References
External links
Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint – UK Parliament*
BBC Radio 4 Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Green of Hurstpierpoint, Stephen Green, Baron
1948 births
Living people
People educated at Lancing College
Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
McKinsey & Company people
British bankers
British chief executives of financial services companies
Ordained peers
Chairmen of HSBC
Conservative Party (UK) life peers
20th-century English Anglican priests
British chairpersons of corporations
Life peers created by Elizabeth II