Douglas Flint, the former chairman of HSBC Holdings, is to take on his first new role since leaving Europe’s biggest bank by joining a newly formed backer of financial technology companies.
Sky News has learnt that Mr Flint will be named on Wednesday as a member of a global advisory council being formed by Motive Partners, which aims to capture a big slice of the $700bn being spent by established financial institutions in technology every year.
Mr Flint will be part of a stellar cast from the finance and technology industries being unveiled by Motive as it builds its profile in an increasingly crowded space for private investment vehicles.
The other members of Motive’s advisory board will include Larry Summers, the former US treasury secretary; John Thompson, chairman of Microsoft; Henry Ritchotte, former chief operating officer of Deutsche Bank; and Peter Leukert, the group chief information officer of Deutsche Telekom.
Motive was established earlier this year by a group of seasoned technology executives from the global financial services industry.
It has styled itself as a next-generation investor which builds, buys and backs the companies that will form the backbone of the world’s future financial services infrastructure.
So far, it is understood to have made two investments, including in LMRKTS, a foreign exchange swaps start-up which helps banks remove redundant trades from their balance sheets.
Motive is understood to have a number of other deals in its investment pipeline, while it is also reportedly raising its maiden fund of more than $1bn.
“With an estimated $4.7tn in revenue at risk of displacement by new tech-enabled entrants and nearly $700bn spent by established financial institutions on technology each year, the intersection of finance and technology represents one of the most compelling and important market opportunities today,” Motive has said previously.
The recruitment of Mr Flint to its global advisory council underlines how executives from the world’s largest banks are being lured to take roles with firms specialising in a new wave of technology-enabled financial services start-ups.
The former HSBC man spent much of his career with the bank, becoming its finance director in 1995 before taking over as chairman in 2010.
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Since announcing his intention to step down as HSBC’s chairman, he has been linked with a number of big boardroom jobs, including the chairmanships of BP, BT Group and the London Stock Exchange Group.
Motive declined to comment ahead of its announcement, while Mr Flint could not be reached for comment.
Source: Sky