Long game

They love Rona Fairhead at HSBC. She's standing for re-election as a non-executive director at the 2015 AGM, despite serving for longer than best practice guidelines. Here's the relevant bit from the annual report.

"The Board considers all of the non-executive Directors to be independent..... Rona Fairhead has served on the Board for more than nine years and, in that respect only, does not meet the usual criteria for independence set out in the UK Corporate Governance Code. The Board has determined Rona Fairhead to be independent in character and judgement, notwithstanding her length of service, taking into account her continuing level of constructive challenge of management and strong contribution to Board discussions. Rona Fairhead will stand for re-election at the 2015 Annual General Meeting."

The report notes that Rona has handed over the chairing of the HSBC Financial System Vulnerabilities Committee to Lord Evans of Weardale. The committee "oversees the implementation by management of policies aimed at mitigating financial crime and system abuse risks which HSBC faces in the execution of its strategy". Rona had been the chair since it was established 2013.

Rona has 76,254 HSBC shares, some owned jointly with another individual, worth a tad over £436k at 11.50am. She earned £494k in fees and £19k in benefits from HSBC over the year.