HSBC said it had set up a new board committee to improve risk management, combat financial crime and help it simplify its business activities.

Europe's biggest bank said on Wednesday it had set up the Financial System Vulnerabilities Committee. It said Jim Comey will join as a non-executive director of the bank in March and will be a member of the committee, joined by two other non-executive directors and five independent advisers.

Chairman Douglas Flint said the committee will help CEO Stuart Gulliver "to simplify business activities and enhance risk management and control" by improving standards across the bank.

(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Matt Scuffham)