HSBC Sexual Harassment Case Shows Banks’ Struggles in MeToo Era
- Former employee alleged she was harassed by senior executive
- HSBC let accused executive speak about bank conduct amid probe
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In the MeToo era, financial firms the world over are struggling to handle complaints of sexual harassment. A case in point: HSBC Holdings Plc.
The lender started a probe after a junior employee complained that she was sexually harassed by a senior executive at an upscale New York restaurant. Yet it allowed the banker, Thibaut de Roux, to speak at a town hall meeting in late August about conduct while the investigation was underway, according to people familiar with the matter. In his presentation streamed globally to thousands of the bank’s markets employees, he displayed a slide, seen by Bloomberg News, stating that "conduct is first a culture.”