Appoints new COO

HSBC Holdings PLC
02 June 2006

                   HSBC APPOINTS NEW CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

HSBC Holdings plc has appointed David Hodgkinson to the position of Group Chief
Operating Officer.

David, 55, will take over from Alan Jebson who retired on 26 May 2006. He
assumes responsibility for ensuring the efficient and innovative evolution of
HSBC's processes and services around the world. This includes the highly
successful global resourcing initiative which has seen HSBC establish 11 Group
service centres to handle selected processing and customer service work for a
number of HSBC Group companies around the world.

Michael Geoghegan, HSBC Group Chief Executive, said: "David has precisely the
kind of broad-based experience in banking that we require for this critical
role. HSBC has led the industry in the development of global processing
operations and the challenge now is to take the exemplary foundations laid by
Alan Jebson and build upon them to make HSBC the most efficient banking group in
the world.

"I have no doubt that David, working closely with his colleagues around the
world, has the skills to realise our ambitious goals."

Prior to this appointment, he was Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
HSBC Bank Middle East Limited, based in Dubai. He joined HSBC in 1969, and has
since held senior positions in numerous countries, including Hong Kong,
Singapore, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia.

David, already a Group Managing Director, will have a seat on the HSBC Group
Managing Board.

He will, additionally, oversee several business units and functions including
those with which he has been closely associated, notably HSBC's operations in
the Middle East.

The responsibility for HSBC's information technology systems will continue to
reside with Ken Harvey, Group Chief Information Officer, who reports to Michael
Geoghegan.




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