HSBC chief executive Noel Quinn and chairman Mark Tucker were in an unusually jovial mood in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Rather than focusing on Quinn’s unexpected departure after five years at the helm, the two bankers spent time on a media call joshing about their respective football teams, Aston Villa and Chelsea. However, lurking beneath this levity is a broader question of whether Quinn’s exit will tilt the London-based bank’s centre of gravity more firmly towards its dominant market in Hong Kong. When asked about Quinn’s successor on Tuesday, Tucker refused to be drawn on whether the new chief could come from the ranks of its Asian businesses, where the lender makes the bulk of its profits. “We will go through a proper process and we’ll let you know as soon as we come to a conclusion,” he said. Several internal candidates are already in the frame, including finance chief Georges Elhedery. But the shake-up is likely to reignite the long-running debate over whether HSBC needs to pivot away from the West towards Asia and China. Quilter Cheviot analyst Will Howlett said: “Managing the geopolitics between the West and the East is going to be a big skill...