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George Osborne, the former chancellor, has emerged as a shock contender to become the next chairman of HSBC Holdings, one of the world’s top banking jobs.
Sky News can exclusively reveal that Mr Osborne, who was chancellor from 2010 until 2016, was approached during the summer about becoming the successor to Sir Mark Tucker.
This weekend, City sources said that Mr Osborne was one of three remaining candidates in the frame to take on the chairmanship of the London-headquartered lender.
Naguib Kheraj, the City veteran who was previously finance director of Barclays and deputy chairman of Standard Chartered, is also in contention.
The other candidate is said to be Kevin Sneader, the former McKinsey boss who now works for Goldman Sachs in Asia.
It was unclear this weekend whether other names remained in contention for the job, or whether the board regarded any as the frontrunner at this stage.
Mr Osborne’s inclusion on the shortlist is a major surprise, given his lack of public company chairmanship experience.
With a market capitalisation of almost £190bn, HSBC is the second-largest FTSE-100 company, after drugs giant AstraZeneca.
The bank has been looking for a replacement for Sir Mark for nearly a year, but has run what external critics have labelled a chaotic succession process.
Sir Mark, who has returned to the helm of insurer AIA as its non-executive chairman, stepped down at the end of September, but remains an adviser to the board.
Brendan Nelson, the former KPMG vice-chairman, became interim chair of HSBC last month and will remain in place until a permanent successor is found.
If he got the job, Mr Osborne would be a radical choice for one of Britain’s biggest corporate jobs.
Since stepping down as an MP, he has assumed a varied professional life, becoming editor of the London Evening Standard for three…
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