Board Change

HSBC Holdings PLC
16 March 2005



                                  BOARD CHANGE

Carole Taylor, an independent non-executive Director since 2002, has retired
from the Board of HSBC Holdings plc with effect from 14 March 2005. Her
retirement follows her decision to stand as a candidate for the provincial
Legislature of British Columbia.

Ms Taylor, Chair of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, will also step down
as a non-executive Director of HSBC North America Holdings Inc. She previously
served on the Boards of HSBC Bank Canada, HSBC Bank USA, N.A. and HSBC USA Inc.

Sir John Bond, Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings plc said: "Carole Taylor has been
an outstanding Director of HSBC and we are extremely grateful for her
contribution. We wish her every success as, once again, she turns her
considerable talents to contributing to public life in Canada. HSBC's loss is
British Columbia's gain."

Note to editors:

The HSBC Group

HSBC Holdings plc is headquartered in the UK. The HSBC Group serves over 110
million customers worldwide from over 9,800 offices in 77 countries and
territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East
and Africa. With assets of US$1,277 billion at 31 December 2004, HSBC is one of
the world's largest banking and financial services organisations. HSBC is
marketed worldwide as 'the world's local bank'.


                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange