HSBC chairman to step down

Investors have been briefed that Mr John Thornton, a non-executive director of HSBC who was once Mr Henry Paulson's heir-apparent at Goldman, is in line to replace Mr Green, the paper added.

HSBC refused to confirm the report.

Mr Green, 61, is understood to be planning his departure as part of a succession strategy that will see Europe's largest bank end a long-running tradition of appointing an executive chairman at the top, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

Mr Green will be HSBC's last executive chairman, a role that for much of the bank's history has been handed to the chief executive when it became vacant, so that the global lender's unique culture remained intact, said the paper.