Bobby Mehta – real name Siddharth - and Sandy Derickson were both elevated to HSBC’s upper echelons at the same time.

But both joined Household International, the sub-prime lender HSBC acquired for $14.8 billion (£7.5 billion) in 2002, two years apart.

Mr Mehta moved to Household in 1998 as the head of its MasterCard and Visa business from The Boston Consulting Group, a financial services company where he was in charge of its Los Angeles office. Mr Mehta led Household into the sub-prime lending market in 1999, when it acquired Oregon’s Renaissance Bankcard Services.

Ms Derickson joined Household a year later, in 2000, after 24 years at US financial services giant GE Capital, where she held a number of roles including president of GE Auto Financial Services. At Household, she was charged with heading up its store and private label credit card businesses.

By that time, Mr Mehta was the group executive of Household credit services.

In 2004, two years after HSBC took control of Household, its second-in-command, David Schoenholz, retired as president and chief operating officer. His role was split in two, with Mr Mehta and Ms Derickson both adding vice chairman to their titles.

As part of his new role, Mr Mehta was given responsibility for the consumer lending and mortgage services businesses, HSBC’s worldwide credit card operations, HSBC Bank USA’s first mortgage operations and strategic planning, corporate marketing and development for HSBC North America.

Ms Derickson took on Household’s insurance, refund lending and auto finance divisions, as well as HFC Bank UK.

Six months ago, Ms Derickson became chief executive at HSBC’s US retail bank when Martin Glynn, retired after 24 years at the company.

At the same time, Paul Lawrence, who was today named as Ms Derickson’s replacement, was appointed to run HSBC’s North American corporate investment banking and markets unit after heading up the bank’s Singapore operation.