HSBC names ex-BoE member, ex-Goldman exec to board

LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Europe's biggest bank HSBC Holdings (HSBA.L) beefed up its board on Friday with the appointment of a former Bank of England deputy governor and a past president of Goldman Sachs (GS.N).

HSBC said Rachel Lomax and John Lawson Thornton will join as non-executive directors next month. Another arrival due in February will take its board up to 21 people.

Lomax, 63, was deputy governor of monetary stability at the Bank of England and a member of the monetary policy committee from 2003 until her departure in June.

She was previously a permanent secretary at three UK government departments and vice president of the World Bank, after an earlier career at the Treasury.

Thornton, who was president and co-chief operating officer at U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs from 1999 to 2003, will take over as chairman of HSBC North America, which includes units hit by billions of dollars in bad home loans in the past two years.

Thornton, 54, spent 23 years at Goldman, including top positions in its international and Asia operations.

(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by David Cowell)