HSBC Holdings has appointed Hannes Hofmann as global head of family offices, a newly created role based in London, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday. Hofmann joins the lender on Thursday and will be responsible for overseeing HSBC's global family office proposition, which serves the private investment vehicles of the world's wealthiest families. He arrives from Citi Private Bank, where he was global head of the family office group until last year. Hofmann brings more than 25 years of experience in global private banking, including a 20-year tenure at J.P. Morgan Private Bank with postings in New York, Hong Kong and London.
The bank simultaneously named Cayman Wills as head of its US private banking business, effective 22 September and based in New York. Wills was previously head of the Northeast region at Citi Private Bank, where she led a team of relationship managers and investment specialists serving high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients, and spent 18 years at JPMorgan in various leadership roles before that. Both appointees report to Ida Liu, chief executive of HSBC Private Bank, who herself joined from Citi Private Bank in January 2026 after 18 years at the US lender, latterly as its global head of private bank. Wills carries an additional entity reporting line to Racquel Oden, head of international wealth and premier banking and private banking in the US.
REBUILDING THE PRIVATE BANK LEADERSHIP BENCH
The two hires extend a leadership reconstruction that Liu has pursued since taking the top private banking role at the start of the year. HSBC appointed four private banking leaders across Asia and the Middle East in August, moving Vivek Pandohi from head of the UAE market to head of Middle East for Global India, and recruiting desk heads from Bank of Singapore and UBS for its Singapore operation. In July, the bank hired David De La Cruz, previously chief of staff at Citi Private Bank, as head of commercial execution, and named Dimitri Anghelakis global head of trust and fiduciary services in Hong Kong, succeeding Brent York after more than three decades at the bank.
The pattern of recruitment from Citi Private Bank has become pronounced. Hofmann, Wills, Liu and De La Cruz all held senior positions at the US firm, and the movement runs in both directions: Citi Private Bank hired HSBC managing director Jonathan Gan as head of global family office for South Asia earlier this month. The competition reflects a structural contest among global private banks for teams capable of serving family offices, which increasingly operate as institutional investors in their own right rather than as passive wealth-preservation vehicles.
WEALTH DIVISION DRIVES GROUP EARNINGS
The appointments come against a backdrop of strong performance in HSBC's wealth franchise. In interim results published on 4 August, the bank reported net new money of $64 billion in its wealth business for the first half of 2026, of which $57 billion was booked in Asia, up 32 per cent from $43 billion a year earlier. Total wealth balances rose 7 per cent to $1.57 trillion, split between $1.09 trillion in Asia and $487 billion elsewhere. Wealth fee and other income grew 18 per cent to $5.5 billion, with private banking income up 14 per cent. Group pre-tax profit for the six months reached $19.5 billion, a 23 per cent increase on the $15.8 billion recorded a year earlier.
The creation of a dedicated global family office role signals an attempt to capture a larger share of institutional-style mandates from the ultra-wealthy, a segment where HSBC has historically competed less aggressively than UBS or the US majors. The bank's stated approach leans on its universal banking model, pairing private banking with corporate and investment banking coverage for entrepreneur clients, roughly two-thirds of its Singapore private banking base. Investors will watch whether the leadership additions translate into sustained net new money in the second half and into 2027, and whether HSBC can convert its Asian booking centre strength into comparable traction in the US and European family office markets.