About

Team size: 1,200 (75 in the UK)
Major law firms used: Allen & Overy, Addleshaw Goddard, Dentons, Eversheds Sutherland, Hogan Lovells, Norton Rose Fulbright, Pinsent Masons, Simmons & Simmons

For HSBC UK GC Hugh Pugsley, an appearance in the GC Powerlist marks the end of years of hibernation from the public eye enforced by a deferred prosecution agreement in the US and major structural reform. The five-year probe by the US Department of Justice concluded in December 2017 after the bank was forced to pay a $1.9bn fine – a punishment for lapses in anti-money laundering measures in relation to Mexican drug cartels.

Despite entering into a relatively smaller ($100m) DPA early in 2018, the end of the much larger investigation and the conclusion of the ring-fencing preparations allowed Pugsley and the HSBC UK legal team to refocus their priorities and go more public with their achievements.

Pugsley, who has led HSBC’s legal team since 2015, has received recognition this year for dealing with a variety of challenging internal and external pressures. From within, the legal function has sought to offshore voluminous ‘branch queries’, matters that Pugsley describes as ‘stuff that can’t be easily answered by the teller at the branch’. In addition to getting its own house in order, HSBC has also been driving extra value from its external counsel. ‘We’re more complex than other banks. We have a global panel and then also individual country panels. We’ve tried to slim down the UK panel to around ten firms.’ Among the select ten firms are Addleshaw Goddard, Eversheds Sutherland, Simmons & Simmons, Dentons and Pinsent Masons.

One of the key issues Pugsley had to navigate through in 2018 was the ring-fencing regulation that came into effect on 1 January 2019. He says HSBC’s ring-fencing provisions concluded in July, describing it as ‘the culmination of a three-year project for the whole group.’

‘Getting up to speed with ring-fencing has been quite a task,’ he says. ‘Lifting and shifting 17 million customers – and it had to be done without any of them really noticing a difference.’