HSBC said it had appointed Sandy Flockhart, an emerging markets specialist, to be the new chief executive of its Asian operations.

HSBC said Flockhart, who is currently president and group managing director for HSBC in Latin America and the Caribbean, would start the role in Hong Kong next month.

Mr Flockhart succeeds Michael Smith, who was appointed chief executive of Australia & New Zealand Banking Group.

Mr Smith, a 29-year veteran of the bank, also worked in Latin America before moving to Hong Kong. In 1999 in Buenos Aires, where he was managing HSBC's Argentina business, Mr Smith's car was riddled by bullets in an ambush, although he managed to escape his assailants.

HSBC, Europe's biggest bank by market value, has $441 billion of assets in the Asia-Pacific region, where it earned pre-tax profit of $8.9 billion last year, and has 60,000 employees in 20 countries and territories.

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