BBC Trust chairman Rona Fairhead is facing calls to step down immediately as a director of HSBC over her links to the bank ’ s tax scandal . Mrs Fairhead , 53 , has said she wants to stay for a least another year , but yesterday it emerged that two major investors and a leading shareholder group have voted to get rid of her . She has been under mounting pressure to quit both of her lucrative positions , at the BBC and the scandal-hit bank , after claims that HSBC ’ s Swiss operation helped wealthy clients hide billions from the taxman . Facing vote : Rona Fairhead is facing calls to step down immediately as a director of HSNC over her links to the bank 's tax scandal . Last month she was criticised by MPs as ‘ incredibly naïve or totally incompetent ’ for her failure to pick up on the scandal . And last night it emerged that American investors Christian Brothers Investment Services and Trillium Asset Management , which manage more than £4.9billion of assets between them , have lodged their votes to get rid of Mrs Fairhead as a non-executive director on HSBC ’ s main board . One of the UK ’ s most powerful shareholder groups has also urged investors to vote against her re-election as an independent director at the bank ’ s annual general meeting next week . In a note to investors , the Pensions & Investment Research Consultants – which advises pension funds and other institutional investors managing £1.5trillion – said : ‘ Ms Fairhead chaired the HSBC audit committee up until 2010 , a period when the company ’ s Swiss arm was allegedly undertaking tax avoidance and evasion on behalf of clients . Scandal : There are claims that HSBC ’ s Swiss operation helped wealthy clients hide billions from the taxman . ‘ Given the lack of control and oversight of this practice , it is considered that Ms Fairhead failed in her responsibility as a guardian of HSBC. ’ But HSBC has told shareholders that Mrs Fairhead , who has been on the board of the embattled bank since 2004 , has ‘ agreed to stay on the board for a further one-year period ’ – the maximum she can be voted in for . Non-executive directors at publicly listed companies must be elected on an annual basis , regardless of how long they intend to stay . A source said that both she and the bank would ‘ assess ’ whether she should stand for re-election in 2016 ‘ closer to the time ’ . Public accounts committee chairman , Margaret Hodge , told Mrs Fairhead she should resign or be sacked by the Government as BBC Trust chairman . HSBC declined to comment . Last year Mrs Fairhead received more than £513,000 in fees and benefits for her work at the troubled bank , including a £334,000 fee as non-executive chairman of HSBC North America Holdings . PIRC said the huge pay package ‘ could be considered to compromise her ability to scrutinise the bank ’ s activities independently ’ . Mrs Fairhead also earns £110,000-a-year for her three-day-a-week job as chairman of the BBC Trust , and a further £130,000 as a non-executive director of the fizzy drinks giant Pepsi . Many MPs expected her to resign from HSBC , especially after her bruising encounter with the Commons public accounts committee . Its chairman , Margaret Hodge , told her she should resign or be sacked by the Government as chairman of the BBC Trust , because she had done her job at HSBC so poorly . ‘ Either you knew [ about the tax evasion ] or you didn ’ t know – and I think in that case that you are either incredibly naive or totally incompetent , ’ she said . Mrs Fairhead told MPs that she had not been aware of any wrongdoing . She said she had relied on various committees and structures to flag up problems , and was ‘ horrified ’ when they later discovered what was happening .
Rona Fairhead is facing immediate calls to step down as director of HSBC . It's after claims Swiss arm helped wealthy clients hide two from taxman . She was criticised by MPs as 'incredibly naive ' for failing to notice scandal . American investors lodged their votes to get rid of the BBC Trust chairman .