HSBC shortlists George Osborne for chair role

Despite lacking experience heading a big listed firm, the former chancellor's geopolitical chops make him a strong contender.

- By Jon Ungoed-Thomas

The former chancellor, George Osborne, has emerged as one of the contenders to chair HSBC, one of Britain's biggest banks.

He is among three shortlisted candidates to replace Sir Mark Tucker as chair of HSBC Holdings, Sky News reported. The annual salary is likely to be in the region of £1.5m.

The two other candidates reported to be in the running for one of the world's biggest banking jobs are Naguib Kheraj, a former deputy chairman of Standard Chartered, and Kevin Sneader, a former McKinsey boss who now works for Goldman Sachs.

Tucker, once a trainee professional footballer with Wolverhampton Wanderers, stood down in September to take up the chair at Asia insurer AIA Group after eight years in the role.

Finding a replacement has proved complex ("there's only one Mark Tucker", goes the refrain) and headhunter MWM Consulting had already done two sweeps of its original shortlist of candidates within the space of six months.