Chief Financial Officer, Americas
HSBC Holdings is in the midst of a U.S. transformation that includes paring its branch network and simplifying its business lines. A key player in those restructuring efforts for the $254 billion-asset U.S. bank is Kavita Mahtani.
Mahtani became the chief financial officer for the Americas region of the London-based company in October 2019, and has made considerable progress toward streamlining the U.S. operations.
The strategy in the U.S. is to become a simpler, sustainably profitable organization focused on internationally connected wholesale clients and the U.S. wealth market. Last year, the company reduced overhead by $300 million.
The restructuring strategy includes combining the bank’s retail banking, wealth management and private banking into the wealth and personal banking business, where middle- and back-office operations of retail and wholesale were combined. Through two deals to sell branches and plans to shutter others, the bank is exiting mass-market retail banking in the U.S. reducing its physical presence to roughly two dozen sites that will be transformed into international wealth centers.
HSBC is selling 80 branches to Citizens Financial Group in Providence, Rhode Island, and 10 West Coast branches to Cathay Bank in Los Angeles. Mahtani was involved in every step of the process and will stay involved until the two deals close. A big part of her role was in managing communications with regulators, the board of directors and other stakeholders, including employees, throughout the process. That was an especially complex undertaking during a pandemic lockdown.
“The remote working environment has forced my team to approach the way we communicate with each other differently and, in particular, to be more deliberate about staying connected,” Mahtani said by email. “During the pandemic, I have implemented weekly one-on-one check-ins with each of my 13 direct reports to ensure I wasn’t losing the connections I have with my colleagues while not in the office together. I find these meetings to be extremely valuable, and, as a result, I’ve built stronger relationships with my teammates than I had previously.”
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As the pandemic subsides and people return to the office, Mahtani said she plans to maintain some work-from-home opportunities using a hybrid working program. Her team will come into the office to have collaborative conversations about big-picture projects, but will be allowed to work from home for some of the general day-to-day tasks.
“I believe this small change will benefit my teammates, particularly the women on my team,” she wrote. “Most often, women tend to carry the burden of juggling childcare and professional responsibilities. I am hopeful that this policy — and the shift to flexible working generally — will enable women who are caretakers to manage their many responsibilities without sacrificing career advancement.”
