article_snippet.sent: Criticised: Fairhead will stand down as director of HSBC while continuing role at BBC .
article_snippet.sent: Fairhead was last month accused of being either ‘incredibly naive or totally incompetent’ by Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, over Fairhead handling of a tax evasion scandal at the bank’s Swiss division.
article_snippet.sent: Now, the 53-year-old has told shareholders Fairhead will stay on for ‘a further one-year period’ before leaving the bank’s’s board entirely, according to The Times.
article_snippet.sent: Fairhead announced Fairhead in a letter to shareholders dated on March 20.
article_snippet.sent: It marks a change in position for the bank, which said in It annual report that Fairhead would again stand for re-election.
article_snippet.sent: Fairhead had been on ’s board since 2004.
article_snippet.sent: Fairhead chaired HSBC’s audit committee and then Fairhead risk committee while Fairhead Swiss clients are said to have dodged tax.
article_snippet.sent: Last year, Fairhead earned more than £500,000 last year as chairwoman of HSBC’s American business.
article_snippet.sent: Fairhead decision marks a change from February, when HSBC’s annual report said that despite having been on ’s board since 2004, Fairhead would again stand for re-election.
article_snippet.sent: Fairhead suggested that ‘frontline’ staff should bear responsibility for breaching the bank’s policies, during Fairhead grilling by the public accounts committee.
article_snippet.sent: Fairhead said: ‘We were horrified when We discovered (what happened).
article_snippet.sent: But Fairhead responded that to ‘simply take the evidence and not question. . .
article_snippet.sent: would mean Fairhead is not fit for purpose’.
article_snippet.sent: Fairhead likely departure from HSBC comes as the bank is planning for a wider clearout of non-executives who have been on the board for a long period of time.