HSBC’s Group CTO Mario Shamtani likes fast cars and track days in a Radical. It’s hard, from a distance, to know how radical he is being with his reform efforts. But it is clear from previous conversations that The Stack has had with others in the organisation, that trying to drive change fast at HSBC has sometimes been a bruising experience. Many reform-minded technologists have left after a few years, chastened and a little battle-sore. It’s hard to transform people, process, and technology at a company over 160 years old, active in 57 countries and with over $3 trillion in balance sheet assets; change-aversion is also a thing and for years the unspoken motto may as well have been “move slowly and please don’t break anything; particularly the mainframes.”
HSBC is notably more reform-minded under Group CEO George Elhedery, who took the role in September 2024. He has reorganised its global operations into four business divisions, effective January 1, 2025, and there is a renewed sense of urgency at the bank around organisational modernisation; something felt across a sprawling technology function – some 60,000 engineers – with a mix of trepidation and anticipation. New leadership abounds in many quarters, including the CTO’s office.
The Stack joined Shamtani for an exclusive first interview. We talked mainframe modernisation, streamlining container platforms, AI “boiling our brains” and more.
