Bim Afolami, the former city minister, will return to HSBC – the bank he worked for before embarking on a political career – in a board role.
Sky News has learned that Mr Afolami, who lost his Hitchin seat in last year’s general election, is to become a non-executive director of the UK entity of the FTSE-100 lender.
The appointment of Mr Afolami, who pushed forward a series of key city reforms during his relatively brief tenure as economic secretary to the Treasury, is expected to be confirmed within days.
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This will be his first significant role in the private sector since leaving Westminster, where he was an MP for seven years.
Mr Afolami was a senior executive at HSBC for several years, before working as a corporate lawyer at Magic Circle Freshfields and US law firm Simpson Thacher and Bartlett.
His recruitment to the HSBC UK board was reportedly approved by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA), which reviews the private sector moves of former ministers and senior civil servants.
A source close to the bank said it would also have been approved by industry regulators.
At HSBC UK, whose board is chaired by former London Stock Exchange chief Dame Clara Furse, Mr Afolami will help oversee one of Britain’s biggest banks.
The company operates 327 branches and employs 23,000 people.
In total, it has around 15 million customers.
A spokesperson for HSBC UK declined to comment on Wednesday evening.
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