text: Criticised: Rona Fairhead will stand down as director of HSBC while continuing role at BBC . The chairman of the BBC Trust will quit her role as a director at HSBC, it was reported last night. Rona Fairhead was last month accused of being either ‘incredibly naive or totally incompetent’ by Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, over her handling of a tax evasion scandal at the bank’s Swiss division. Now, the 53-year-old has told shareholders she will stay on for ‘a further one-year period’ before leaving the bank’s board entirely, according to The Times. She announced her departure in a letter to shareholders dated on March 20. It marks a change in position for the bank, which said in its annual report that Mrs Fairhead would again stand for re-election. She had been on the board since 2004. Last night, HSBC insisted that ‘no decision has been taken at this time’. In a bruising encounter, Labour MP Mrs Hodge had told the BBC chief: ‘You should think about resigning. If not, the Government should sack you.’ Mrs Fairhead chaired HSBC’s audit committee and then its risk committee while its Swiss clients are said to have dodged tax. The bank was subsequently fined £1.2 billion for breaching American money-laundering laws. Last year, Mrs Fairhead earned more than £500,000 last year as chairwoman of HSBC’s American business. Her decision marks a change from February, when HSBC’s annual report said that despite having been on the board since 2004, Mrs Fairhead would again stand for re-election. She was appionted to her role as chairwoman of the BBC Trust in October last year for a five-year term. Mrs Fairhead suggested that ‘frontline’ staff should bear responsibility for breaching the bank’s policies, during her grilling by the public accounts committee. She said: ‘We were horrified when we discovered (what happened). I can assure you absolutely no evidence of tax evasion was received. I could only respond to evidence that I had and I could only deal with that.’ But Mrs Hodge responded that to ‘simply take the evidence and not question. . . would mean she is not fit for purpose’. Under fire: Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee (left), called on Fairhead to quit or be sacked from BBC role over her HSBC role . Her likely departure from HSBC comes as the bank is planning for a wider clearout of non-executives who have been on the board for a long period of time.
target: Criticised over 'incompetent' handling of bank's tax evasion scandal .
  Announced her departure in a letter to shareholders .
  Follows calls by MP Margaret Hodge for Fairhead to quit BBC role .