Board Appointment

HSBC Hldgs PLC
23 February 2001



              HSBC HOLDINGS BOARD APPOINTMENTS
                              
                              
Sir Mark Moody-Stuart KCMG and Miss Sharon Hintze have been
appointed non-executive directors of HSBC Holdings plc with
effect from 1 March 2001.

Sir Mark is Chairman of the Committee of Managing Directors
of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies and Chairman of
The 'Shell' Transport and Trading Company, plc.

Miss Hintze has held senior executive positions with Nestle
and with Mars.
                              
                

                                                                             
Sir Mark Moody-Stuart KCMG

Chairman of the Committee of Managing Directors of the Royal
Dutch/Shell Group and Chairman of The 'Shell' Transport and
Trading Company, plc
                              
                              
                              
Sir Mark Moody-Stuart was appointed a non-executive director
of HSBC Holdings plc with effect from 1 March 2001.

Sir Mark was born in Antigua, West Indies, 1940. He was
educated at Shrewsbury School, Shropshire, and holds a
Doctorate in Geology from St John's College, Cambridge.

Sir Mark joined Shell in 1966, starting his international
career in exploration before moving into general management.
Early practical experience as a geologist led to exploration
positions in Brunei, Australia and the North Sea. From 1978
onwards he held a number of general management positions in
Europe, Asia and Africa. In 1991 he was appointed to head
the Group's Exploration and Production operations outside
North America and to the position of a Group Managing
Director. He became Chairman of the 'Shell' Transport and
Trading Company, plc in 1997, and Chairman of the Committee
of Managing Directors of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group in
1998.

Sir Mark is also Co-Chairman of the G8 Task Force on
renewable energy.

Sir Mark became a Knight Commander of the Order of St
Michael and St George in June 2000.
                                                            

Sharon Hintze
                              

Sharon Hintze was appointed a non-executive Director of HSBC
Holdings plc with effect from 1 March 2001.

Born in 1944, in Kansas, Miss Hintze completed a BSc and MSc
at Brigham University, Utah, and an MPhil in Mathematics at
the University of Warwick, UK.

Miss Hintze worked for more than 20 years in a variety of
positions at Mars Incorporated in both the US and Europe
including, from 1987-1992, as Chief Executive Officer of
Effems AG in Switzerland, and later as Executive Vice
President of M&M/Mars in New Jersey.  Following her time
with Mars, Miss Hintze worked at the corporate headquarters
of Nestle SA as Senior Vice President and Head of its
Petcare Strategic Business Unit.

After leaving Nestle in 1995, Miss Hintze spent several
months as Chief Operating Officer of Barilla SPA, Italy's
leading food company. Miss Hintze left Barilla to return to
Switzerland from where she is engaged in a variety of
independent consulting and charitable activities in
Switzerland, London and New York.