HONG KONG (Reuters) ? David Eldon, chairman of HSBC Holdings Plc.?s Asia unit, is retiring and the bank has also hired Peter Wong, former executive of rival Standard Chartered, as executive director, HSBC said yesterday.

HSBC said Vincent Cheng would replace Eldon as the first Chinese chairman of its Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. unit.

Eldon, 59, is leaving in May after 37 years with the bank.

London-based HSBC is well known for having a large pool of executives at the top, which the bank says allows for smooth succession.

Cheng has been chief executive of Hang Seng Bank, the Hong Kong arm of HSBC, since 1998.

He will be replaced by Raymond Or, general manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp., which is HSBC?s Asia group.

Wong, who resigned suddenly as StanChart?s Greater China CEO on November 15, will take over Or?s responsibilities.

The move adds a couple of local faces to HSBC?s top ranks.

?Adding more strong localised people in management is a good sign,? said Anthony Lok, an analyst at BOC International.

?It?s nice to see they?re trying to add on the depth with local domestic talent.?

Hong Kong-born Cheng, 56, has been CEO of Hang Seng since 1998 and joined the HSBC group twenty years before that in its group finance unit.

HSBC tends to promote through the ranks, and many of its executives have spent their entire careers with the bank.

Eldon is no exception, but the bank is also happy to bring on a banker of Wong?s experience, said Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. CEO Michael Smith.

?It brings in new blood and new ideas,? Smith told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Asia-focused StanChart, which is based in London and is HSBC?s biggest rival in the cutthroat Hong Kong banking market, said Wong left for various reasons but declined to give further details.

Smith declined to say how long Wong and HSBC had been in talks but said he would start in April. There had been media speculation that Wong would turn up at Bank of China or Bank of Communications, two mainland-based lenders.

Eldon, who was also chairman of Hang Seng, would be replaced in that role in April 2005 by Smith, who would keep his current role. HSBC?s shares fell 0.51 percent to 885 pence at 1048 GMT in London, and closed in Hong Kong up 0.75 percent at HK$134.50.