A Citi transformation MD from New York arrived at HSBC in London

HSBC may be looking to close its M&A and ECM businesses in London, but life goes on for the bank's other divisions, even if they too are being transformed. 

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HSBC has made a big hire for its technology team. Venkat Vajipey has joined as chief information officer and global head of digital platforms for the bank's international wealth and premier banking arm. He's arrived in HSBC's London office, after spending the past year as Citi's global head of client platforms in New York.

Vajipey was a Citi lifer, having spent the past 24 years at the US bank. He made MD in 2018, then in 2021 became head of cross product technology for the ICG and head of commercial bank technology, where he was "responsible for the execution of multi-year digital transformation strategy" of the division. Earlier in his tenure, he ran infrastructure development for Citi's FX trading team.

Vajipey also spent time in Citi's wealth division, which has faced a lot of scrutiny for its infrastructure. Citi Wealth is thought to have "the worst tech on the street," but problems have been reported in its tech for decades and the full transformation is still years away from completion. 

He's not the first Citi tech MD to join HSBC in London. Milly Webb, another Citi lifer of 24 years, joined HSBC last week as CIO of enterprise technology, although she was already based in London prior to the move.

HSBC's wealth division has faced some turbulence of its own. Wealth chief Nuno Matos left last August following the promotion of Georges Elhedery as HSBC's CEO. HSBC is investing in digital platforms staff despite also dismantling payments platform Zing. HSBC introduced the Revolut competitor just a year ago, but the platform fell out of favour after Elhedery became CEO, and is now being closed with ~400 jobs reportedly at risk.

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