HSBC Holdings plc

views updated May 18 2018

HSBC Holdings plc

8 Canada Square
London, E14 SHQ
United Kingdom
Telephone: (44) 020 7991 588
Fax: (44) 020 7991 4639
Web site: http://www.hsbc.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1865 as Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company, Ltd.
Employees: 265,285
Total Assets: $1.50 trillion (2005)
Stock Exchanges: London Hong Kong New York Paris Bermuda
Ticker Symbols: HSBA; 005; HBC; PHSB
NAIC: 522110 Commercial Banking; 522120 Savings Institutions; 522292 Real Estate Credit; 522293 International Trade Financing; 523110 Investment Banking and Securities Dealing; 523920 Portfolio Management; 523930 Investment Advice; 523991 Trust, Fiduciary, and Custody Activities; 524110 Direct Life, Health, and Medical Insurance Carriers; 551111 Offices of Bank Holding Companies

A leading international banking group, HSBC Holdings plc (also referred to as the HSBC Group) operates in about 80 countries and offers comprehensive financial services encompassing not only commercial and merchant banking but also capital markets, consumer finance, securities, investments, and insurance. The HSBC Group is increasingly international in nature, despite the group still being centered around the bank from which it evolved (and from which it gained its acronymic name)—The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd., the top bank in Hong Kong, known colloquially as HongkongBank.

HSBC has 9,500 offices spread out across five continents serving 120 million customers. While a growing force in many areas of the world, the group is especially notable for its longstanding presence in China, where it has been active since 1865. Its foreign subsidiaries are among the leading banks in Canada, France, Mexico, and other countries.

FOUNDING OF HONGKONGBANK

The history of HSBC begins with the founding of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company, Ltd. in 1865. In the early 1860s, Hong Kong's financial needs were served by European trading houses called "hongs." This system proved increasingly inadequate as the colony's bustling trade—primarily in tea, silk, and opium—burgeoned. By 1864 the first proper banks had been established, but as these were based in London or India and controlled from abroad, there was a growing feeling that a local bank was needed in the colony.

Dissatisfaction led to action when it was discovered that a group of Bombay financiers intended to set up a "Bank of China" in Hong Kong, and that this bank, chartered in London, was to offer only a small proportion of its shares to China coast businesses. Thomas Sutherland, the Hong Kong Superintendent of the Peninsula and Orient Steam Navigation Company, proposed the foundation of a new bank modeled on "sound Scottish banking principles." The proposal was promptly taken up by others of the Hong Kong business community; within days a provisional committee had established a banking cooperative capitalized at HKD 5 million. The move effectively preempted the proposed "Bank of China," whose representative, when he arrived later in Hong Kong, could find no market for his shares.

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company Ltd. opened on March 3, 1865, with a second branch inaugurated in Shanghai on April 3. A London office was opened later in the year. Members of the cooperative included American, German, Scandinavian, and Parsee Indian merchant houses, as well as representatives from the Bombay-based David Sassoon & Company and Hong Kong-based Dent & Company. The largest companies in Hong Kong, Jardine Matheson and the American firm Russell & Company, were not represented. The highly favorable response to the bank by foreign interests and compradores (native businessmen who acted as intermediaries with the Chinese community), however, led both to reconsider and join.

An international financial crisis in 1865–66 could have destroyed the bank. Instead, with financial support from its members, the bank took over the operations of failed competitors and hired their staff. Dent, meanwhile, the dominant Hong Kong member of the group, went bankrupt. Instead of hurting the cooperative, however, Dent's failure allowed broader representation by more diverse local interests.

Initially, the bank was established under the local Companies Ordinance as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company Ltd. Under the colonial law of the time, a bank had to incorporate either under a royal charter in compliance with the Colonial Banking Regulations or else according to British banking legislation. The bank's founders objected to these options, however, as they had particularly designed their enterprise as a local concern. Eventually a deal was struck with the Treasury whereby the bank (renamed The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation), under a unique ordinance, could retain Hong Kong headquarters while complying with the Colonial Banking Regulations.

EXPANDING RAPIDLY IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY

HongkongBank expanded rapidly throughout the 19th century. By 1900, it had branches in Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, and the countries now known as Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. In some Asian cities, HongkongBank was the first to usher in principles of modern Western banking and was indeed Thailand's very first bank, printing that country's first bank notes. In the United States and Europe, HongkongBank branches opened in San Francisco in 1875, New York in 1880, Lyons in 1881, and Hamburg in 1889. Except in New York, where a Canadian bank already operated, HongkongBank was the first foreign bank in each of these cities.

In Hong Kong, operations experienced a setback in the 1870s when the bank made some unwise investments in local Hong Kong industry—its reserves fell from HKD 1 million to HKD 100,000—but the company soon regained its footing under the leadership of a new chief manager, Thomas Jackson, who brought the bank back to a renewed emphasis on its field of expertise, trade finance. By the end of Jackson's reign, in 1902, HongkongBank's paid-up capital stood at HKD 10 million, and its published reserves at HKD 14.25 million, with additional estimated inner reserves of HKD 10 million.

COMPANY PERSPECTIVES

We believe long-term success and good corporate behaviour are linked. Corporate Social Responsibility has been a vital ingredient in HSBC's 140 years of success. We have always maintained that a company's first social responsibility is to be successful. Success allows us to invest in new products and services for our customers. It enables us to pay the dividends which form an important part of the long-term savings and pension plans of our shareholders. It allows us to contribute to public services through the taxes we pay to governments. It creates jobs for our colleagues and suppliers.

The bank had, however, developed another lucrative role—that of banker to governments. By the 1880s, HongkongBank was operating in this capacity to the government of Hong Kong and had acquired the Treasury Chest (the British government's military and foreign service) business for China and Japan. In addition, the HongkongBank issued bank notes for Hong Kong and for the Straits Settlements (Singapore and Penang). Since these notes were not, at the time, legal tender, their popularity reflected the public's trust in HongkongBank. Through a powerful compradore in China, the bank established contacts with local officials in Tianjin and Beijing. The bank was later asked to issue a public loan on behalf of the Chinese government, and directed several more in ensuing years. While some of these loans financed China's war against Japan (1894–95) and the enforcement of peace during internal conflicts such as the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, the bulk was used for infrastructural projects such as railroads, coal mines, and shipping lines.

The bank was able to develop a very favorable rapport with the government and business interests in China mainly because it had a widespread presence in China and was incorporated in Hong Kong. By 1910 it was the favored intermediary of the multinational China Consortium, a result of the demonstrated effectiveness of the Bank's London manager, Sir Charles Addis.

WORLD WARS LEADING TO NUMEROUS DIFFICULTIES

World War I deeply divided the bank, still well represented by both Germans and Britons. The German members of its board, identified in the press as "hostile interests," eventually resigned, marking a more or less permanent end to German participation in the company. Still, the bank's Hamburg office remained open for the duration of the war.

The high price of silver after the war led the bank to make a rights issue to finance an expansion. Chief Manager A.G. Stephen presided over the construction of new facilities in Hankow, Bangkok, Manila, and especially Shanghai, where a new office was opened in 1923. An office opened in Vladivostok in 1918 but was forced to close in 1924, when Russian revolutionary forces completed their consolidation of control over Siberia.

The optimism of the early 1920s crashed after 1929 and continued to deteriorate through the 1930s, as Japanese interests moved into China, this time supported by Japanese guns. At first, the Japanese domination of China was limited to the rich hinterlands of Manchuria and consisted mainly of the commercial exploitation of resources. While the bank was permitted to establish offices in the Manchurian cities of Dairen, Mukden, and Harbin, its operations were limited only to foreign trade. Meanwhile, in the rest of China, the bank experienced new competition from an increasingly sophisticated Chinese banking community.

At the same time, the bank was losing business from the Philippine government and was discriminated against in Indonesia and Vietnam by Dutch and French colonial authorities. Despite generous lending and other support tactics for customers involved in rubber and other volatile commodities trades, bank profits continued to deteriorate. In many cases, competitors complained that the bank's extraordinary care "exceeded the limits of prudent lending." The bank was, however, founded on cooperative precepts, and continued to operate on that basis. Still, it was the shareholders who suffered; shareholders' funds fell from £9.1 million in 1918 to £8.6 million in 1940.

KEY DATES

1865:: Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company, Ltd. is established.
1918:: Shareholders' funds are £9.1 million.
1940:: The Japanese occupy Hong Kong during World War II.
1950:: Mainland industrialists flee the communists to Hong Kong.
1959:: HSBC buys London's Mercantile Bank and the British Bank of the Middle East.
1960:: The bank forms the Wayfoong consumer financing group.
1972:: Merchant bank subsidiary Wardley Ltd. Is established.
1980:: The California subsidiary is divested; HSBC acquires control of Buffalo, New York's Marine Midland Bank.
1991:: Holding company HSBC Holdings plc is formed.
1992:: Midland Bank, the United Kingdom's third largest, is acquired for £3.9 billion ($7.2 billion).
1997:: The United Kingdom transfers control of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.
2000:: HSBC acquires venerable Crédit Commercial de France (CCF) for $11 billion.
2002:: Mexico's Grupo Financiero Bital is acquired and recapitalized for $2 billion.
2003:: A new headquarters is opened; Household International of the United States is acquired.
2004:: HSBC acquires Bank of Bermuda and Marks & Spencer's retail financial services unit.
2005:: Total assets are $1.5 trillion.

The number of Hong Kong dollars in circulation, 80 percent of which was printed by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, increased from HKD 50 million in 1927 to HKD 200 million in 1940. In effect, the bank backed HKD 160 million of the colony's currency—a dangerous exposure to the local economy, despite transferring the currency from a silver to sterling standard. The bank became involved in an even more unmanageable currency-stabilization effort in Shanghai, from which it eventually had to bow out, turning the scheme over to a government board.

The Japanese occupation of China, meanwhile, had become extremely brutal. Terror bombings, invasion, and a Japanese military riot in Nanking stifled commerce in China and isolated Hong Kong from its Chinese hinterland. Sensing imminent danger, the bank's chief manager, Vandeleur Grayburn, authorized the immediate transfer of silver reserves into sterling assets in London. On December 8, 1940, shortly after completing the transfer, Japanese troops stormed through Hong Kong's New Territories, and on December 25 won a surrender.

Bank employees in Manchuria, Japan, and Indochina were repatriated, and those in Burma and Singapore escaped to India. Employees in China, particularly Foochow, managed to reach Chungking, where the bank opened a formal office in 1943. The staff in Hong Kong was much less fortunate; most of them who were of European descent were imprisoned.

Under prearranged orders from Grayburn, the bank's London manager, Arthur Morse, assumed managerial control of the bank. Morse transferred the dollar-denominated assets located in Hong Kong to London, fearing that if the Japanese gained control of them, the assets would be frozen by the U.S. government. In light of the circumstances—the bank's board was interned in Hong Kong—Morse was named both chief manager and chairman. During the occupation, Japanese authorities forced the bank to issue additional currency in order to support the local economy. Grayburn and his designated successor, D.C. Edmonston, meanwhile, died in prison.

The war ended so suddenly in August 1945 that Hong Kong remained occupied when Japan surrendered. With colonial authorities back in control, the bank began the difficult and costly task of rebuilding. The amortization of bank notes issued under the occupation cost HKD 16 million, and new legislation only permitted the bank to collect debts from enemy interests in depreciated occupation currencies.

POSTWAR RECOVERY AND EXPANSION

Despite its weakened condition, the bank played a major role in the reconstruction of Hong Kong, a task Morse began planning well before the war ended. All the company's branches were reopened—with the exception of Hamburg which, again, had remained open during the war—including those in Japan. By 1947, however, new problems arose in China, where the wartime alliance between Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists and Mao Tse-tung's communists had degenerated into a civil war. The immediate effects were severe inflation and increasing public disorder.

By October 1949 the communists had gained control of the mainland and the nationalists had fled to Taiwan. When an initial plea by the communists for reconstruction in cooperation with capitalists was suddenly reversed in 1950, industrialists fled China—especially Shanghai—for Hong Kong. The bank maintained offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, and Shantou until 1955, when all but the Shanghai branch were closed. The Chinese, it seemed, preferred to do all their business through Hong Kong.

After the war, the British government practiced a "non-extractive" economic policy in Hong Kong, which, coupled with the entrepreneurial talent of industrialists transplanted from Shanghai and a labor force swelled by thousands of mainland refugees, created a powerful economic base. The bank financed hundreds of new ventures that helped the colony achieve unprecedented export-led growth. The growth of the textile industry in Hong Kong, however, led the bank to fear that it had become overexposed to that one industry.

Under Michael Turner, the HongkongBank adopted a new strategy of expansion using subsidiaries during the mid-1950s. Initially made necessary by American banking legislation, the subsidiary form of organization was first used in 1955 to establish a branch in California—one step toward reducing its dependence on Hong Kong.

Because Britain relinquished much of its empire after the war, British companies were forced to rationalize, by merger, acquisition, or nationalization. Indeed, many went bankrupt. Two such companies, the Mercantile Bank (formerly the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China) and the British Bank of the Middle East (known as BBME, formerly the Imperial Bank of Persia), were purchased by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in 1959. The addition of the Mercantile Bank, with an extensive branch network in India, and the BBME, strongly represented in the Persian Gulf, made the HongkongBank the largest foreign bank in most of the countries from the Far East to southwest Asia.

Having reduced its exposure to Hong Kong, the bank moved next to diversify operationally. In 1960 it created Wayfoong, a consumer financing group whose name translates loosely as "focus of wealth."

A banking crisis in Hong Kong in 1964 led to a serious run on a competitor, the Hang Seng Bank. As the primary financial institution in Hong Kong and de facto central bank, the HongkongBank, while under no statutory duty to do so, acquired a majority interest in Hang Seng in 1965. Hang Seng subsequently recovered, and was the second largest bank incorporated in Hong Kong into the 1990s.

The HongkongBank's expansion through subsidiaries began in earnest with the creation in 1972 of Wardley Ltd., a merchant bank, and an insurance company called Carlingford. The bank also made numerous other investments—in Cathay Pacific Airways, the WorldWide shipping group, and the South China Morning Post. All these investments proved highly profitable in light of Hong Kong's rapid economic growth. In addition, the BBME benefited greatly from the newly prosperous oil-based economies in the Persian Gulf. In 1978, however, BBME branches in Saudi Arabia were taken over by the Saudi British Bank, a Saudi-controlled bank in which BBME retained management control, but only 40 percent ownership.

Under the leadership of Michael Sandberg, the HongkongBank reexamined its position in America as part of a wider strategy to gain greater representation in the major Western economies. The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank of California was sold and the bank purchased a 51 percent share of Marine Midland Bank, a Buffalo, New York-based bank holding company, in 1980. The HongkongBank bought the outstanding shares of Marine Midland in 1987. This acquisition inspired substantial debate in the U.S. Congress about whether banking laws should be strengthened to prevent foreign companies from gaining control over American banks.

The bank expanded in several ways during 1980. In China, the Shanghai branch was expanded and a representative office was established in Beijing. In addition, the BBME relocated from London to Hong Kong, and the bank gained control of Concord International, a leasing and finance group, and Anthony Gibbs, a British merchant bank. The following year, a Canadian subsidiary, the Hongkong Bank of Canada, was established in Vancouver. In 1986 the Hongkong Bank of Canada acquired the business of the Bank of British Columbia, bringing the number of branches across Canada to 61.

A bidding war over the Royal Bank of Scotland Group between the HongkongBank and Standard & Chartered (issuer of Hong Kong's other currency) was halted in 1981 by the British Monopolies & Mergers Commission, which ruled against both bids. Meanwhile, the bank succeeded in establishing a presence in Africa in 1981 through the acquisition of a controlling interest in Equator Bank by its merchant bank subsidiary Wardley; in Cyprus in 1982, also primarily through Wardley; and in Australia in 1985, when it established HongkongBank of Australia. Back in North America, HongkongBank entered into a strategic alliance with California-based Wells Fargo Bank in 1989. Also that year, HongkongBank was registered under the Hong Kong Companies Ordinance, at which time it adopted the name The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd.

HongkongBank's expansionist policies were not always successful. Its acquisition of Marine Midland, said initially to have boosted the bank's assets from HKD 125.3 billion to HKD 243 billion, soon proved a debacle. Ill-advised forays into real estate and Latin American lending led to significant losses, prompting the parent company in 1991 to completely overhaul its subsidiary—at a purported cost of $1.8 billion. Other high-profile failures of the 1980s included the bank's financing of an Australian tycoon, Alan Bond, who went bankrupt.

FORMING HSBC HOLDINGS PLC IN 1991

In 1984 Great Britain and the People's Republic of China signed a historic agreement, slating for July 1, 1997, the return of Hong Kong to Chinese control, and providing added impetus to HongkongBank's overseas expansion. Keen to beef up its presence in Europe, the bank acquired James Capel, a leading U.K. securities firm, in 1986. Of still greater importance was the beginning in December 1987 of an association between HongkongBank and Midland Bank, one of four major British clearing banks. In December 1987 HongkongBank made the friendly acquisition of 14.9 percent of Midland's stock, agreeing not to increase its stake in Midland until the expiration of a three-year agreement in December 1990. Staking its future in Europe to that of Midland, HongkongBank transferred control of its branches on the European continent to Midland and in turn acquired Midland's branches in Canada and South Korea. In 1990 Hongkong Bank of Canada expanded still further through the purchase of Lloyds Bank Canada, becoming the seventh largest bank in Canada by the early 1990s.

HongkongBank and Midland entered into merger talks in 1990, but the talks broke off late in the year because of what were termed "financial difficulties." Nevertheless, HongkongBank held onto its stake in Midland following the expiration of the three-year agreement.

Like many Hong Kong-based companies facing the uncertainties of 1997, HongkongBank made some major organizational changes well before the handover. In 1991 it created a new holding company, HSBC Holdings plc, making HongkongBank a subsidiary of the U.K.-incorporated but Hong Kong-based HSBC Holdings. HSBC stock was set up on both the London and Hong Kong markets, showing the importance Hong Kong Bank placed on Europe (and London) for its future. For HongkongBank, the establishment of a new holding company relieved it of management responsibility for the group's more than 500 subsidiaries in 50 countries. The bank thus could focus primarily on the Asia-Pacific region it knew so well.

HSBC completed the long-anticipated takeover of Midland in 1992, gaining full control of what became its flagship in Europe. HSBC made an initial friendly offer in March for Midland. The following month Lloyds stepped in with a larger, hostile offer. HSBC soon put an end to the takeover battle with a 480p per share offer in June, prompting Lloyds to bow out. HSBC ended up paying £3.9 billion ($7.2 billion) to acquire Midland. As a condition of the acquisition, HSBC was required by the regulatory Bank of England to move its main office to London, which it did in January 1993. The headquarters of HongkongBank remained in Hong Kong.

The acquisition of Midland was a coup, providing HSBC with the significant presence in Europe it had previously lacked. Variously described as a merger and a takeover, the amalgamation virtually doubled HSBC's assets (from £86 billion to £170 billion) and workforce. The venerable Midland, the U.K.'s third largest bank, was not performing to standard at that time, being the least profitable of Britain's "big four" banks. Nevertheless, the financial health and the international experience of the parent company began attracting larger corporate customers to Midland. In addition, many individuals were subsequently won over by the telephone banking service, First Direct, introduced by Midland in 1989 and strongly backed by HSBC. HSBC's lead in technology—used, for example, to automate credit decisions and limit staff expenditure—also played a part in Midland's recovery.

Although under the HSBC umbrella structure individual subsidiaries acted, in large part, autonomously, the company also moved to coordinate some operations. Soon after the takeover of Midland, HSBC integrated its treasury operations in London, New York, and Tokyo and established common technological standards. Also in 1992 HSBC opened a trading room in London for the dealing business of Midland, James Capel, and HSBC Greenwell. This became the largest treasury trading operation in Europe. That year also saw the establishment of the HSBC Investment Banking Group, which coordinated the merchant banking, securities, and asset management business (HSBC Asset Management) of the entire HSBC Group.

HongkongBank, which had long acted as a quasi-central bank, was relieved of some of these unofficial duties in 1992, when the Hong Kong Monetary Authority was established. The following year HongkongBank divested its holding in Cathay Pacific Airways. In 1994 it became the first foreign bank to incorporate locally in Malaysia through the establishment of Hongkong Bank Malaysia Berhad. In the mid-1990s the bank greatly expanded its personal banking business through the opening or upgrading of personal banking units in Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mauritius, New Zealand, the Philippines, Saipan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand. The bank also expanded its presence in China during this period, maintaining good relations with the Chinese government—which was extremely important as 1997 approached.

HSBC Holdings continued to expand in the mid-1990s under the leadership of Chief Executive John Bond. In 1995 HSBC and Wells Fargo established Wells Fargo HSBC Trade Bank in California, a joint venture (40 percent owned by HSBC) providing trade finance and international banking services in the United States. Marine Midland was bolstered in 1996 with the acquisition of Rochester, New York-based First Federal Savings and Loan Association for $620 million. Latin America was the subject of several 1997 transactions: the purchase of a 10 percent stake in Banco del Sur del Peru; the founding of a new subsidiary in Brazil, Banco HSBC Bamerindus S.A., which took over assets of Banco Bamerindus do Brasil; the increase in investment in Banco Santiago in Chile to 6.99 percent; the acquisition of Roberts S.A. de Inversiones of Argentina (renamed HSBC Roberts S.A. de Inversiones); and the purchase of a 19.9 percent stake in Grupo Financiero Serfin of Mexico.

Although HSBC seemed to suffer no ill effects from the handover of Hong Kong to Chinese control on July 1, 1997, it did feel the effects of the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s. The group was particularly hard hit in troubled Indonesia, where it had to set aside about $2.5 billion in provisions for bad loans. Nevertheless, its earlier moves into Europe and the Americas paid off handsomely, as higher profits in these regions helped offset weaker results in Asia. Meantime, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, in an attempt to thwart currency speculators, made a significant intervention in the Hong Kong Stock Market in August 1998, purchasing large stakes in several prominent companies. The government of Hong Kong thereby became HSBC Holdings' single largest shareholder, with an 8.9 percent stake. In October 1998 HSBC announced that it had signed a 999-year lease for a new 1.1 million-square-foot headquarters building at Canary Wharf in London, scheduled for completion by early 2002. The following month HSBC said that it would unify the HSBC Group under the HSBC name and logo, thereby establishing a more global corporate identity. Among the units whose marketing names would change to HSBC were Banco HSBC Bamerindus, the British Bank of the Middle East, Hongkong Bank Malaysia, Hongkong Bank of Australia, Hongkong Bank of Canada, HSBC Banco Roberts, Marine Midland, Midland Bank, HSBC Equator Bank, HSBC Investment Banking, and even the flagship HongkongBank itself. Eventually the legal names of many HSBC Group subsidiaries would also be changed. In a press release, Bond said: "We want the HSBC brand to be known in every country and in every sector in which we operate as synonymous with integrity, trust, and excellent customer service. I am confident that a unified brand and the strong recognition it will bring for HSBC's exceptional strengths is an important step forward as we work to maximise shareholder value." The implementation of this significant change was sure to require much of HSBC's attention at the onset of the 21st century.

HSBC shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 1999. Later in the year, the group bought Republic New York Corporation and Safra Republic Holdings S.A. Acquisitions also were giving HSBC a considerable presence in Europe. The company bought Crédit Commercial de France (renamed CCF S.A. and ultimately HSBC France) for $11 billion in 2000. CCF had been formed in 1894 and operated 650 branch offices. In July 2000, when the deal closed, HSBC shares began trading on the Paris Stock Exchange.

HSBC bought out Australia's NRMA Building Society Ltd., Turkey's Demirbank, and Taiwan's China Securities Investment Trust Corporation in 2001. It also was picking up minority shares in others such as the Bank of Shanghai and Ping An Insurance Company, China's second largest insurance provider. Ping An underwent an initial public offering in 2004, diluting HSBC's stake to about 10 percent, but in August 2005 raised its holding to 19.9 percent at a cost of $1 billion.

"THE WORLD'S LOCAL BANK" IN 2002

The company spent about $2 billion in 2002 to buy and recapitalize Mexico's Grupo Financiero Bital. HSBC gained 5.5 million new customers at 1,400 new branches. During the year, HSBC began billing itself as "The world's local bank." HSBC opened its impressive new headquarters at London's Canary Wharf in April 2003. About 8,000 employees were based there.

Part of HSBC's sensitivity to local cultures included support of environmental causes such as the World Wildlife Fund. In December 2004, the company became the first bank to set the goal of becoming "carbon neutral," a status it achieved within a year.

In 2003, the group made a major acquisition in the United States, taking over Household International Inc., which had more than 1,300 branches and 53 million consumer finance and credit card customers. In Brazil, HSBC also bought a leading consumer finance company, Losango Promotora de Vendas Limitada, as well as Banco Lloyds TSB S.A.-Banco Múltiplo. Among other 2003 deals was the purchase of Keppel Insurance Pte Ltd., which supplied insurance in Singapore.

The mergers and acquisitions activity continued in 2004, adding the Bank of Bermuda Ltd. and Marks and Spencer's Retail Financial Services Holdings Ltd. (d/b/a M&S Money). By this time, most of the group's existing subsidiaries had changed their names to include the HSBC initials. Household International, renamed HSBC Finance Corporation, and others were combined into the HSBC North America unit.

China was the hub of much of the group's investment activity in 2005. While raising its holding in Ping An Insurance, it also bought a 19.9 percent stake in Bank of Communications Ltd. HSBC was also opening new bank branches. In March 2005, its Beijing branch began providing local currency services, a first for a foreign bank. Elsewhere in the world, U.S. credit card issuer Metris Companies Inc. was acquired by HSBC Finance for $1.6 billion in December 2005.

The group's chairman since 1988, Sir John Bond, was retiring in May 2006. He was leaving a much larger company than the one he had joined. HSBC posted pretax profits of $21 billion in 2005, up 11 percent from the previous year. Total assets were $1.5 trillion (£873 billion; HKD 11.65 trillion). The group employed a virtual army of 265,285 employees worldwide, serving nearly 100 million customers.

Robin DuBlanc

Updated, David E. Salamie; Frederick C. Ingram

PRINCIPAL SUBSIDIARIES

The Bank of Bermuda Ltd.; Hang Seng Bank Ltd. (Hong Kong; 62.14%); HFC Bank Ltd.; HSBC Asset Finance (UK) Ltd.; The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd. (Hong Kong); HSBC Bank A.S. (Turkey); HSBC Bank Argentina S.A. (99.99%); HSBC Bank Australia Ltd.; HSBC Bank Brasil S.A.-Banco Múltiplo; HSBC Bank Canada; HSBC Bank Egypt S.A.E. (94.53%); HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad; HSBC Bank Malta plc (70.03%); HSBC Bank Middle East Ltd. (Jersey); HSBC Bank plc; HSBC Bank USA, N.A.; HSBC La Buenos Aires Seguros S.A. (Argentina; 99. 53%); HSBC Finance Corporation (United States); HSBC France (formerly CCF S.A.) (99.99%); HSBC Guyerzeller Bank AG (Switzerland); HSBC Insurance (Asia) Ltd. (Hong Kong); HSBC Insurance Brokers Ltd.; HSBC Investments (Taiwan) Ltd. (formerly HSBC Asset Management (Taiwan) Ltd.); HSBC Investments (UK) Ltd. (formerly HSBC Asset Management (Europe) Ltd.); HSBC Life (International) Ltd. (Bermuda); HSBC Life (UK) Ltd.; HSBC Private Bank (Guernsey) Ltd. (Guernsey); HSBC Mexico S.A. (99.74%); HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) S.A.; HSBC Private Bank (UK) Ltd.; HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.; HSBC Seguros (Brasil) S.A. (97.92%); HSBC Technology & Services (USA) Inc.; HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt KGaA (Germany; 77.89%); Maxima S.A. AFJP (Argentina; 59.99%).

PRINCIPAL DIVISIONS

Europe; Hong Kong; Rest of Asia-Pacific, including the Middle East and Africa; North America; South America.

PRINCIPAL OPERATING UNITS

Grupo Financiero HSBC, S.A. de C.V. (99.8%); HSBC Bank plc; HSBC France (Netherlands); HSBC Insurance Holdings Ltd.; HSBC Investment Bank Holdings plc; HSBC Latin America Holdings (UK) Ltd.; HSBC North America Holdings Inc.

PRINCIPAL COMPETITORS

Lloyds TSB Group plc; Barclays plc.

HSBC Holdings plc

views updated May 11 2018

HSBC Holdings plc

10 Lower Thames Street
London EC3R 6AE
United Kingdom
(0171) 260 0500
Fax: (0171) 260 0501
Web site: http://www.hsbcgroup.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1865 as Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company, Ltd.
Employees: 130,000
Total Assets: £286.39 billion (US$471.69 billion) (1997)
Stock Exchanges: London Hong Kong
Ticker Symbol: HSBHY (ADR)
SICs: 6712 Offices of Bank Holding Companies; 6021 National Commercial Banks; 6029 Commercial Banks, Not Elsewhere Classified; 6162 Mortgage Bankers & Loan Correspondents; 6163 Loan Brokers; 6211 Security Brokers, Dealers & Flotation Companies; 6282 Investment Advice; 6311 Life Insurance; 6351 Surety Insurance; 6371 Pension, Health & Welfare Funds; 6411 Insurance Agents, Brokers & Services; 6733 Trusts, Except Educational, Religious & Charitable

A significant force in international banking, HSBC Holdings plc (also referred to as the HSBC Group) operates in some 79 countries and offers a comprehensive financial service encompassing not only commercial and merchant banking but also capital markets, consumer finance, securities, investments, and insurance. The HSBC Group is increasingly international in nature, despite the group still being centered around the bank from which it evolved (and from which it gained its acronymic name)—The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, the top bank in Hong Kong, known colloquially as HongkongBank. About 30 percent of HSBC’s asset base is in Hong Kong, 35 percent in the United Kingdom, 19 percent in the Americas, 12.5 percent in the Asia-Pacific region (not including Hong Kong), and 3.5 percent in continental Europe.

Founding of HongkongBank

The history of HSBC begins with the founding of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company, Ltd. in 1865. In the early 1860s, Hong Kong’s financial needs were served by European trading houses called “hongs.” This system proved increasingly inadequate as the colony’s bustling trade—primarily in tea, silk, and opium—burgeoned. By 1864 the first proper banks had been established, but as these were based in London or India and controlled from abroad, there was a growing feeling that a local bank was needed in the colony.

Dissatisfaction led to action when it was discovered that a group of Bombay financiers intended to set up a “Bank of China” in Hong Kong, and that this bank, chartered in London, was to offer only a small proportion of its shares to China coast businesses. Thomas Sutherland, the Hong Kong Superintendent of the Peninsula and Orient Steam Navigation Company, proposed the foundation of a new bank modeled on “sound Scottish banking principles.” The proposal was promptly taken up by others of the Hong Kong business community; within days a provisional committee had established a banking cooperative capitalized at HK$5 million. The move effectively preempted the proposed “Bank of China,” whose representative, when he arrived later in Hong Kong, could find no market for his shares.

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company Limited opened on March 3, 1865, with a second branch inaugurated in Shanghai on April 3. A London office was opened later in the year. Members of the cooperative included American, German, Scandinavian, and Parsee Indian merchant houses, as well as representatives from the Bombay-based David Sassoon & Company and Hong Kong-based Dent & Company. The largest companies in Hong Kong, Jardine Matheson and the American firm Russell & Company, were not represented. The highly favorable response to the bank by foreign interests and compradores (native businessmen who acted as intermediaries with the Chinese community), however, led both to reconsider and join.

An international financial crisis in 1865-66 could have destroyed the bank. Instead, with financial support from its members, the bank took over the operations of failed competitors and hired their staff. Dent, meanwhile, the dominant Hong Kong member of the group, went bankrupt. However, instead of hurting the cooperative, Dent’s failure allowed broader representation by more diverse local interests.

Initially, the bank was established under the local Companies Ordinance as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company Limited. Under the colonial law of the time, a bank had to incorporate either under a royal charter in compliance with the Colonial Banking Regulations or else according to British banking legislation. However, the bank’s founders objected to these options, as they had particularly designed their enterprise as a local concern. Eventually a deal was struck with the Treasury whereby the bank (renamed The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation), under a unique ordinance, could retain Hong Kong headquarters while complying with the Colonial Banking Regulations.

Expanded Rapidly in the Late 19th Century

HongkongBank expanded rapidly throughout the 19th century. By 1900, it had branches in Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, and the countries now known as Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. In some Asian cities, HongkongBank was the first to usher in principles of modern Western banking and was indeed Thailand’s very first bank, printing that country’s first bank notes. In the United States and Europe, HongkongBank branches opened in San Francisco in 1875, New York in 1880, Lyons in 1881, and Hamburg in 1889. Except in New York, where a Canadian bank already operated, HongkongBank was the first foreign bank in each of these cities.

In Hong Kong, operations experienced a setback in the 1870s when the bank made some unwise investments in local Hong Kong industry—its reserves fell from HK$1 million to HK$ 100,000—but the company soon regained its footing under the leadership of a new chief manager, Thomas Jackson, who brought the bank back to a renewed emphasis on its field of expertise, trade finance. By the end of Jackson’s reign, in 1902, HongkongBank’s paid-up capital stood at HK$10 million, and its published reserves at HK$ 14.25 million, with additional estimated inner reserves of HK$10 million.

The bank had, however, developed another lucrative role—that of banker to governments. By the 1880s, HongkongBank was operating in this capacity to the government of Hong Kong and had acquired the Treasury Chest (the British government’s military and foreign service) business for China and Japan. In addition, the HongkongBank issued bank notes for Hong Kong and for the Straits Settlements (Singapore and Penang). Since these notes were not, at the time, legal tender, their popularity reflected the public’s trust in HongkongBank. Through a powerful compradore in China, the bank established contacts with local officials in Tianjin and Beijing. The bank was later asked to issue a public loan on behalf of the Chinese government, and directed several more in ensuing years. While some of these loans financed China’s war against Japan (1894-95) and the enforcement of peace during internal conflicts such as the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, the bulk were used for infrastructural projects such as railroads, coal mines, and shipping lines.

The bank was able to develop a very favorable rapport with the government and business interests in China mainly because it had a widespread presence in China and was incorporated in Hong Kong. By 1910 it was the favored intermediary of the multinational China Consortium, a result of the demonstrated effectiveness of the Bank’s London manager, Sir Charles Addis.

World Wars Led to Numerous Difficulties

World War I deeply divided the bank, still well represented by both Germans and Britons. The German members of its board, identified in the press as “hostile interests,” eventually resigned, marking a more or less permanent end to German participation in the company. Still, the bank’s Hamburg office remained open for the duration of the war.

The high price of silver after the war led the bank to make a rights issue to finance an expansion. Chief Manager A.G. Stephen presided over the construction of new facilities in Hankow, Bangkok, Manila, and especially Shanghai, where a new office was opened in 1923. An office opened in Vladivostok in 1918 but was forced to close in 1924, when Russian revolutionary forces completed their consolidation of control over Siberia.

The optimism of the early 1920s crashed after 1929 and continued to deteriorate through the 1930s, as Japanese interests moved into China, this time supported by Japanese guns. At first, the Japanese domination of China was limited to the rich hinterlands of Manchuria and consisted mainly of the commercial exploitation of resources. While the bank was permitted to establish offices in the Manchurian cities of Dairen, Mukden, and Harbin, its operations were limited only to foreign trade. Meanwhile, in the rest of China, the bank experienced new competition from an increasingly sophisticated Chinese banking community.

Company Perspectives:

The HSBC Group’s approach is highly distinctive. At its core around the world are domestic commercial banking and financial services which fund themselves locally and do business locally.

Highly efficient technology links these operations to deliver a wide range of international products, as well as services, adapted to local customers’ needs. This structure allows the Group to serve a broad international customer base, while limiting its currency risk in any given location. Customers range from individual depositors and small local businesses to the world’s largest corporations.

The geographical distribution of assets reflects the HSBC Group’s international approach. The largest concentration of the Group’s assets remains in the Asia-Pacific region, including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR). Asia-Pacific has consistently been the Group’s most profitable area.

At the same time, the bank was losing business from the Philippine government and was discriminated against in Indonesia and Vietnam by Dutch and French colonial authorities. Despite generous lending and other support tactics for customers involved in rubber and other volatile commodities trades, bank profits continued to deteriorate. In many cases, competitors complained that the bank’s extraordinary care “exceeded the limits of prudent lending.” The bank was, however, founded on cooperative precepts, and continued to operate on that basis. Still, it was the shareholders who suffered; shareholder’s funds fell from £9.1 million in 1918 to £8.6 million in 1940.

The number of Hong Kong dollars in circulation, 80 percent of which were printed by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, increased from HK$50 million in 1927 to HK$200 million in 1940. In effect, the bank backed HK$160 million of the colony’s currency—a dangerous exposure to the local economy, despite transferring the currency from a silver to sterling standard. The bank became involved in an even more unmanageable currency-stabilization effort in Shanghai, from which it eventually had to bow out, turning the scheme over to a government board.

The Japanese occupation of China, meanwhile, had become extremely brutal. Terror bombings, invasion, and a Japanese military riot in Nanking stifled commerce in China and isolated Hong Kong from its Chinese hinterland. Sensing imminent danger, the bank’s chief manager, Vandeleur Grayburn, authorized the immediate transfer of silver reserves into sterling assets in London. On December 8, 1940, shortly after completing the transfer, Japanese troops stormed through Hong Kong’s New Territories, and on Christmas won a surrender.

Bank staff in Manchuria, Japan, and Indochina were repatriated, and those in Burma and Singapore escaped to India. Employees in China, particularly Foochow, managed to reach Chungking, where the bank opened a formal office in 1943. The staff in Hong Kong were much less fortunate; most of them who were of European descent were imprisoned.

Under prearranged orders from Grayburn, the bank’s London manager, Arthur Morse, assumed managerial control of the bank. Morse transferred the dollar-denominated assets located in Hong Kong to London, fearing that if the Japanese gained control of them, the assets would be frozen by the U.S. government. In light of the circumstances—the bank’s board was interned in Hong Kong—Morse was named both chief manager and chairman. During the occupation, Japanese authorities forced the bank to issue additional currency in order to support the local economy. Grayburn and his designated successor, D.C. Edmonston, meanwhile, died in prison.

The war ended so suddenly in August 1945 that Hong Kong remained occupied when Japan surrendered. With colonial authorities back in control, the bank began the difficult and costly task of rebuilding. The amortization of banknotes issued under the occupation cost HK$16 million, and new legislation only permitted the bank to collect debts from enemy interests in depreciated occupation currencies.

Postwar Recovery

Despite its weakened condition, the bank played a major role in the reconstruction of Hong Kong, a task Morse began planning well before the war ended. All the company’s branches were reopened—with the exception of Hamburg which, again, had remained open during the war—including those in Japan. By 1947, however, new problems arose in China, where the wartime alliance between Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalists and Mao Tse-tung’s communists had degenerated into a civil war. The immediate effects were severe inflation and increasing public disorder.

By October 1949 the communists had gained control of the mainland and the nationalists had fled to Taiwan. When an initial plea by the communists for reconstruction in cooperation with capitalists was suddenly reversed in 1950, industrialists fled China—especially Shanghai—for Hong Kong. The bank maintained offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, and Shantou until 1955, when all but the Shanghai branch were closed. The Chinese, it seemed, preferred to do all their business through Hong Kong.

After the war, the British government practiced a “non-extractive” economic policy in Hong Kong which, coupled with the entrepreneurial talent of industrialists transplanted from Shanghai and a labor force swelled by thousands of mainland refugees, created a powerful economic base. The bank financed hundreds of new ventures that helped the colony achieve unprecedented export-led growth. The growth of the textile industry in Hong Kong, however, led the bank to fear that it had become overexposed to that one industry.

International Expansion, 1950s Through 1970s

Under Michael Turner, the HongkongBank adopted a new strategy of expansion using subsidiaries during the mid-1950s. Initially made necessary by American banking legislation, the subsidiary form of organization was first used in 1955 to establish a branch in California—one step toward reducing its dependence on Hong Kong.

Because Britain relinquished much of its empire after the war, British companies were forced to rationalize, by merger, acquisition, or nationalization. Indeed, many went bankrupt. Two such companies, the Mercantile Bank (formerly the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China) and the British Bank of the Middle East (known as BBME, formerly the Imperial Bank of Persia), were purchased by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in 1959. The addition of the Mercantile Bank, with an extensive branch network in India, and the BBME, strongly represented in the Persian Gulf, made the Hongkong-Bank the largest foreign bank in most of the countries from the Far East to southwest Asia.

Having reduced its exposure to Hong Kong, the bank moved next to diversify operationally. In 1960 it created Wayfoong, a consumer financing group whose name translates loosely as “focus of wealth.”

A banking crisis in Hong Kong in 1964 led to a serious run on a competitor, the Hang Seng Bank. As the primary financial institution in Hong Kong and de facto central bank, the HongkongBank, while under no statutory duty to do so, acquired a majority interest in Hang Seng in 1965. Hang Seng subsequently recovered, and was the second largest bank incorporated in Hong Kong into the 1990s.

The HongkongBank’s expansion through subsidiaries began in earnest with the creation in 1972 of Wardley Ltd., a merchant bank, and an insurance company called Carlingford. The bank also made numerous other investments—in Cathay Pacific Airways, the World-Wide shipping group, and the South China Morning Post. All these investments proved highly profitable in light of Hong Kong’s rapid economic growth. In addition, the BBME benefited greatly from the newly prosperous oil-based economies in the Persian Gulf. In 1978, however, BBME branches in Saudi Arabia were taken over by the Saudi British Bank, a Saudi-controlled bank in which BBME retained management control, but only 40 percent ownership.

North American Expansion Marked the 1980s

Under the leadership of Michael Sandberg, the Hongkong-Bank reexamined its position in America as part of a wider strategy to gain greater representation in the major Western economies. The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank of California was sold and the bank purchased a 51 percent share of Marine Midland Bank, a Buffalo, New York-based bank holding company, in 1980. The HongkongBank bought the outstanding shares of Marine Midland in 1987. This acquisition inspired substantial debate in the U.S. Congress about whether banking laws should be strengthened to prevent foreign companies from gaining control over American banks.

The bank expanded in several ways during 1980. In China, the Shanghai branch was expanded and a representative office was established in Beijing. In addition, the BBME relocated from London to Hong Kong, and the bank gained control of Concord International, a leasing and finance group, and Anthony Gibbs, a British merchant bank. The following year, a Canadian subsidiary, the Hongkong Bank of Canada, was established in Vancouver. In 1986 the Hongkong Bank of Canada acquired the business of the Bank of British Columbia, bringing the number of branches across Canada to 61.

A bidding war over the Royal Bank of Scotland Group between the HongkongBank and Standard & Chartered (issuer of Hong Kong’s other currency) was halted in 1981 by the British Monopolies & Mergers Commission, which ruled against both bids. Meanwhile, the bank succeeded in establishing a presence in Africa in 1981 through the acquisition of a controlling interest in Equator Bank by its merchant bank subsidiary Wardley; in Cyprus in 1982, also primarily through Wardley; and in Australia in 1985, when it established HongkongBank of Australia. Back in North America, Hongkong-Bank entered into a strategic alliance with California-based Wells Fargo Bank in 1989. Also that year, HongkongBank was registered under the Hong Kong Companies Ordinance, at which time it adopted the name The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.

HongkongBank’s expansionist policies were not always successful. Its acquisition of Marine Midland, said initially to have boosted the bank’s assets from HK$125.3 billion to HK$243 billion, soon proved a debacle. Ill-advised forays into real estate and Latin American lending led to significant losses, prompting the parent company in 1991 to completely overhaul its subsidiary—at a purported cost of US$1.8 billion. Other high-profile failures of the 1980s included the bank’s financing of an Australian tycoon, Alan Bond, who went bankrupt.

Formation of HSBC Holdings, Acquisition of Midland Bank (U.K.) and the Early 1990s

In 1984 Great Britain and the People’s Republic of China signed a historic agreement, slating for July 1, 1997, the return of Hong Kong to Chinese control, and providing added impetus to HongkongBank’s overseas expansion. Keen to beef up its presence in Europe, the bank acquired James Capel, a leading U.K. securities firm, in 1986. Of still greater importance was the beginning in December 1987 of an association between HongkongBank and Midland Bank, one of four major British clearing banks. In December 1987 HongkongBank made the friendly acquisition of 14.9 percent of Midland’s stock, agreeing not to increase its stake in Midland until the expiration of a three-year agreement in December 1990. Staking its future in Europe to that of Midland, HongkongBank transferred control of its branches on the European continent to Midland and in turn acquired Midland’s branches in Canada and South Korea. In 1990 Hongkong Bank of Canada expanded still further through the purchase of Lloyds Bank Canada, becoming the seventh largest bank in Canada by the early 1990s.

HongkongBank and Midland entered into merger talks in 1990, but the talks broke off late in the year because of what were termed “financial difficulties.” Nevertheless, Hongkong-Bank held onto its stake in Midland following the expiration of the three-year agreement.

Like many Hong Kong-based companies facing the uncertainties of 1997, HongkongBank made some major organizational changes well before the handover. In 1991 it created a new holding company, HSBC Holdings plc, making HongkongBank a subsidiary of the U.K.-incorporated but Hong Kong-based HSBC Holdings. HSBC stock was set up on both the London and Hong Kong markets, showing the importance Hongkong placed on Europe (and London) for its future. For HongkongBank, the establishment of a new holding company relieved it of management responsibility for the group’s more than 500 subsidiaries in 50 countries. The bank thus could focus primarily on the Asia-Pacific region it knew so well.

HSBC completed the long-anticipated takeover of Midland in 1992, gaining full control of what became its flagship in Europe. HSBC made an initial friendly offer in March for Midland. The following month Lloyds stepped in with a larger, hostile offer. HSBC soon put an end to the takeover battle with a 480p per share offer in June, prompting Lloyds to bow out. HSBC ended up paying £3.9 billion (US$7.2 billion) to acquire Midland. As a condition of the acquisition, HSBC was required by the regulatory Bank of England to move its main office to London, which it did in January 1993. The headquarters of HongkongBank remained in Hong Kong.

The acquisition of Midland was a coup, providing HSBC with the significant presence in Europe it had previously lacked. Variously described as a merger and a takeover, the amalgamation virtually doubled HSBC’s assets (from £86 billion to £170 billion) and workforce. The venerable Midland, the U.K.’s third largest bank, was not performing to standard at that time, being the least profitable of Britain’s “big four” banks. Nevertheless, the financial health and the international experience of the parent company began attracting larger corporate customers to Midland. In addition, many individuals were subsequently won over by the telephone banking service, First Direct, introduced by Midland in 1989 and strongly backed by HSBC. HSBC’s lead in technology—used, for example, to automate credit decisions and limit staff expenditure—also played a part in Midland’s recovery.

Although under the HSBC umbrella structure individual subsidiaries largely acted autonomously, the company also moved to coordinate some operations. Soon after the takeover of Midland, HSBC integrated its treasury operations in London, New York, and Tokyo and established common technological standards. Also in 1992 HSBC opened a trading room in London for the dealing business of Midland, James Capel, and HSBC Greenwell. This became the largest treasury trading operation in Europe. That year also saw the establishment of the HSBC Investment Banking Group, which coordinated the merchant banking, securities, and asset management business (HSBC Asset Management) of the entire HSBC Group.

HongkongBank, which had long acted as a quasi-central bank, was relieved of some of these unofficial duties in 1992, when the Hong Kong Monetary Authority was established. The following year HongkongBank divested its holding in Cathay Pacific Airways. In 1994 it became the first foreign bank to incorporate locally in Malaysia through the establishment of Hongkong Bank Malaysia Berhad. In the mid-1990s the bank greatly expanded its personal banking business through the opening or upgrading of personal banking units in Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mauritius, New Zealand, the Philippines, Saipan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand. The bank also expanded its presence in China during this period, maintaining good relations with the Chinese government—which was extremely important as 1997 approached.

HSBC Holdings continued to expand in the mid-1990s under the leadership of John Bond, appointed chief executive in January 1993 (and group chairman in June 1998). In 1995 HSBC and Wells Fargo established Wells Fargo HSBC Trade Bank in California, a joint venture (40 percent owned by HSBC) providing trade finance and international banking services in the United States. Marine Midland was bolstered in 1996 with the acquisition of Rochester, New York-based First Federal Savings and Loan Association for US$620 million. Latin America was the subject of several 1997 transactions: the purchase of a 10 percent stake in Banco del Sur del Peru; the founding of a new subsidiary in Brazil, Banco HSBC Bamerindus S.A., which took over assets of Banco Bamerindus do Brasil; the increase in investment in Banco Santiago in Chile to 6.99 percent; the acquisition of Roberts S.A. de Inversiones of Argentina (renamed HSBC Roberts S.A. de Inversiones); and the purchase of a 19.9 percent stake in Grupo Financiero Serfin of Mexico.

Although HSBC seemed to suffer no ill effects from the handover of Hong Kong to Chinese control on July 1, 1997, it did feel the effects of the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s. The group was particularly hard hit in troubled Indonesia, where it had to set aside about US$2.5 billion in provisions for bad loans. Nevertheless, its earlier moves into Europe and the Americas paid off handsomely, as higher profits in these regions helped offset weaker results in Asia. Meantime, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, in an attempt to thwart currency speculators, made a significant intervention in the Hong Kong stock market in August 1998, purchasing large stakes in several prominent companies. The government of Hong Kong thereby became HSBC Holdings’ single largest shareholder, with an 8.9 percent stake.

In October 1998 HSBC announced that it had signed a 999-year lease for a new 1.1 million square foot headquarters building at Canary Wharf in London, scheduled for completion by early 2002. The following month HSBC said that it would unify the HSBC Group under the HSBC name and logo, thereby establishing a more global corporate identity. Among the units whose marketing names would change to HSBC were Banco HSBC Bamerindus, the British Bank of the Middle East, Hongkong Bank Malaysia, Hongkong Bank of Australia, Hongkong Bank of Canada, HSBC Banco Roberts, Marine Midland, Midland Bank, HSBC Equator Bank, HSBC Investment Banking, and even the flagship HongkongBank itself. Eventually the legal names of many HSBC Group subsidiaries would also be changed. In a press release, Bond said: “We want the HSBC brand to be known in every country and in every sector in which we operate as synonymous with integrity, trust, and excellent customer service. I am confident that a unified brand and the strong recognition it will bring for HSBC’s exceptional strengths is an important step forward as we work to maximise shareholder value.” The implementation of this significant change was sure to require much of HSBC’s attention at the turn of the century.

Principal Subsidiaries

Commercial Banking: Banco HSBC Bamerindus S.A. (Brazil); British Arab Commercial Bank Limited; The British Bank of the Middle East (Channel Islands); Egyptian British Bank S.A.E. (Egypt); Hang Seng Bank Limited (Hong Kong; 62.1%); The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (Hong Kong); Hongkong Bank Malaysia Berhad; Hongkong Bank of Australia Limited; Hongkong Bank of Canada; HSBC Banco Roberts S.A. (Argentina; 99.85%); Marine Midland Bank (U.S.A.); Midland Bank plc; The Saudi British Bank (Saudi Arabia); Wells Fargo HSBC Trade Bank, N.A.(U.S.A.). Investment Banking: Guyerzeller Bank AG (Switzerland; 71%); HSBC Asset Management Americas Inc. (U.S.A.); HSBC Asset Management Europe Limited; HSBC Asset Management Hong Kong Limited; HSBC Equator Bank plc; HSBC International Trustee Limited (Channel Islands); HSBC Investment Bank Asia Limited(Hong Kong); HSBC Investment Bank plc; HSBC Private Bank (Jersey) Limited (Channel Islands); HSBC Private Equity Europe Limited; HSBC Securities Asia Limited (Hong Kong); HSBC Securities Japan Limited; HSBC Trustee (Hong Kong) Limited; HSBC Trustee (Jersey) Limited (Channel Islands); HSBC Unit Trust Management Limited; Midland Bank Trust Company Limited; Midland Bank Trustee (Jersey) Limited (Channel Islands); Trinkaus & Burkhardt KGaA (Germany; 73%); Wardley Financial Services Limited (Hong Kong). Capital Markets: HSBC Greenwell; HSBC Securities, Inc. (U.S.A.). Finance: Forward Trust Group Limited; HSBC Forfaiting Asia Pte Limited (Singapore); HSBC International Trade Finance Limited; Mortgage And Finance Berhad (Brunei Darussalam); Wayfoong Credit Limited (Hong Kong); Wayfoong Finance Limited (Hong Kong); Wayfoong Mortgage And Finance (Singapore) Limited. Insurance, Retirement Benefits, Actuarial and Personal Financial Services: Hang Seng Life Limited (Hong Kong); HSBC Gibbs Limited; HSBC Gibbs Personal Insurances Limited; HSBC Insurance (Asia-Pacific) Holdings Limited (Hong Kong); HSBC Insurance Holdings Limited; La Buenos Aires Compañia Argentina de Seguros S.A. (Argentina); Midland Life Limited. Bullion Dealing and Commodity/Brokerage Services: Wardley Broking Services Private Limited (Singapore). Property: Wayfoong Property Limited. Shipping Services: HSBC Shipbrokers Limited.

HSBC Holdings plc

views updated May 29 2018

HSBC Holdings plc

10 Lower Thames Street
London EC3R 6AE
United Kingdom
(071) 260 0500
Fax: (071) 260 0501

Public Company
Incorporated: 1865 as Hongkong and Shanghai Banking
Company, Ltd.
Employees: 99,148
Sales: £2.58 billion
Stock Exchanges: London Hong Kong
SICs: 6711 Holding Companies; 6111 Financial Institutions;
6012
Recognized Banks; 6411 Insurance Agents, Brokers, and
Service

A significant force in international banking, HSBC Holdings plc operates in some 60 countries and offers a comprehensive financial service encompassing not only commercial and merchant banking but also capital markets, consumer finance, securities, investments, and insurance. Despite a high international profile—the group’s corporate customer base includes one-third of the world’s 200 biggest companies—HSBC Holdings’ principal asset remains its original one: Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, known colloquially as Hongkong-Bank.

The history of HSBC may be traced through the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC). In the early 1860s, Hong Kong’s financial needs were served by European trading houses called “hongs.” This system proved increasingly inadequate as the colony’s bustling trade—primarily in tea, silk, and opium—burgeoned. By 1864, the first proper banks had been established, but as these were based in London or India and controlled from abroad, there was a growing feeling that a local bank was needed in the colony.

Dissatisfaction led to action when it was discovered that a group of Bombay financiers intended to set up a Bank of China in Hong Kong, and that this bank, chartered in London, was to offer only a small proportion of its shares to China coast businesses. Thomas Sutherland, the Hong Kong Superintendent of the Peninsula and Orient Steam Navigation Company, proposed the foundation of a new bank modeled on “sound Scottish banking principles.” The proposal was promptly taken up by others of the Hong Kong business community; within days a provisional committee—comprised of Britons, other Europeans, and Americans—was set up and the total capital of the new venture set at HK$5 million. The move effectively preempted the proposed Bank of China, whose representative, when he arrived later in Hong Kong, could find no market for his shares.

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company, Ltd. opened on March 3, 1865, with a second branch inaugurated in Shanghai one month later. A London office was opened later in the year. The new bank was welcomed by both the foreign business community and Chinese compradores—native businessmen who acted as intermediaries with the Chinese community. HongkongBank’s timing could have been disastrous, coinciding as it did with the international financial crisis of 1865-66, but this event actually worked to the new bank’s advantage, as it recruited staff and customers from the banks that had failed.

Initially, the bank was established under the local Companies Ordinance as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company, Ltd. Under the colonial law of the time, a bank had to incorporate either under a royal charter in compliance with the Colonial Banking Regulations or else according to British banking legislation. However, the bank’s founders objected to these options, as they had particularly designed their enterprise as a local concern. Eventually a deal was struck with the Treasury whereby the renamed Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, under a unique ordinance, could retain Hong Kong headquarters while complying with the Colonial Banking Regulations.

HongkongBank expanded rapidly throughout the nineteenth century. By 1900, it had branches in Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, and the countries now known as Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. In some Asian cities, HongkongBank was the first to usher in principles of modern Western banking and was indeed Thailand’s very first bank, printing that country’s first bank notes. In the United States and Europe, HongkongBank branches opened in San Francisco in 1875, New York in 1880, Lyons in 1881, and Hamburg in 1889. Except in New York, where a Canadian bank already operated, HongkongBank was the first foreign bank in each of these cities.

In Hong Kong, operations experienced a setback in the 1870s when the bank made some unwise investments in local Hong Kong industry—its reserves fell from HK$1 million to HK$ 100,000—but the company soon regained its footing under the leadership of a new chief manager, Thomas Jackson, who brought the bank back to a renewed emphasis on its field of expertise, trade finance. By the end of Jackson’s reign, in 1902, HongkongBank’s paid-up capital stood at HK$10 million, and its published reserves at HK$ 14.25 million, with additional estimated inner reserves of HK$10 million.

The bank had, however, developed another lucrative role—that of banker to governments. By the 1880s, HongkongBank was operating in this capacity to the government of Hong Kong and had acquired the Treasury Chest (the British government’s military and foreign service) business for China and Japan. In addition, the HongkongBank issued bank notes for Hong Kong and for the Straits Settlements (Singapore and Penang). Since these notes were not, at the time, legal tender, their popularity reflected the public’s trust in HongkongBank. Perhaps the bank’s greatest success was in mainland China: it financed that country’s first public loan in 1874 and, by 1910, had become the foremost bank and clearing house for the national groups of the multinational China Consortium.

World War I proved a difficult time for the international bank both diplomatically and financially, as nationalistic fervor gripped the world. HongkongBank was censured by Britain for its ties with nations that were now enemies, and Germany was similarly dissatisfied—all the bank’s German directors resigned. Business did improve to some extent after the war, with the bank opening new offices in Hankow, Bangkok, and Manila, but operations in an increasingly hostile China suffered; although the bank moved into Manchuria, its activities were limited to foreign trade activities. Furthermore, the rise of an indigenous Chinese banking industry curtailed the influence of HongkongBank. The bank also experienced disappointments in other Asian markets, incurring losses in the Philippines and the Malayan Peninsula, and found its branches in Java, Saigon, and Haiphong neglected in favor of Dutch and French colonial banks.

As hostilities mounted at the onset of World War II, Hongkong-Bank just managed to ship its reserves (previously silver, now British sterling standard) to London before Japan invaded Hong Kong on December 8, 1941. During the war, most of the bank’s European staff working in Asia were taken prisoner by the Japanese. Many were subsequently sent home, but some were held, including the bank’s chief manager and his appointed successor, both of whom died during incarceration.

During this time, operations shifted to London, where the head office was moved. The London manager became chairperson and chief manager of the bank, and the London Advisory Committee took on the powers of the board of directors. When the war ended, HongkongBank was held liable for some HK$16 million in bank notes which it had issued under coercion during the occupation.

The bank soon recovered its losses, however, in the boom years after the war. Headquartered again in Hong Kong, Hongkong-Bank was prominent in the effort to rebuild the colony after the war, providing financial aid to revitalize commerce and the economy. The bank also looked outward, establishing its presence even more firmly throughout Asia. However, as mainland China became increasingly volatile both politically and fiscally, HongkongBank began closing its branches in China soon after the war and by 1955 retained a presence only in Shanghai.

Nonetheless, the political situation in China also worked to the bank’s advantage, as business in its home market of Hong Kong was boosted by unrest on the mainland. Refugees and industrialists pouring into the colony from China brought with them manufacturing skills and experience. HongkongBank was there to finance them, and thus played a significant part in helping to establish Hong Kong as one of the world’s most prominent manufacturing centers.

HongkongBank also retained its interest in international operations, initiating a new policy of establishing or acquiring foreign subsidiaries incorporated in their country of operation. In 1959, HongkongBank purchased the Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China and the British Bank of the Middle East. The bank also consolidated an already strong position in Hong Kong with a friendly takeover of the extensive interests of the Hang Seng Bank in 1965.

HonkongBank’s renewed interest in expansion was matched by a diversification in the banking services it provided. The bank formed a hire-purchase finance subsidiary, Wayfoong, in 1960, to deal with such operations as installment loans for consumer goods and financing motor vehicle purchases. This trend to offer a more comprehensive service continued, with the bank forming Wardley Ltd. in 1972, a subsidiary involved with merchant and investment banking, and the establishment of an insurance subsidiary, Carlingford.

In 1980, the bank acquired 51 percent of the New York-based Marine Midland Bank Inc. This was a highly significant move for the bank—the total assets of the acquisition represented 62 percent of the assets of HongkongBank—and a controversial one, sparking American fears (leading to congressional hearings) that the control of a major U.S. bank would move from the country. HongkongBank managed to placate these fears and indeed acquired the remaining interest in the American bank in 1987. Hongkong Bank of Canada was established in 1981, and, nine years later, HongkongBank acquired Lloyds Bank Canada. Moreover, the bank attempted to move cautiously back into China, as that country eased its economic restrictions on foreign financiers.

However, HongkongBank’s expansionist policies were not always successful. Its acquisition of the U.S. Marine Midland, said initially to have boosted the bank’s assets from HK$125.3 billion to HK$243 billion, soon proved a debacle. Ill-advised forays into real estate and Latin American lending led to significant losses, prompting the parent company in 1991 to completely overhaul its subsidiary—at a purported cost of $1.8 billion. Other high-profile failures of the 1980s include the bank’s financing of an Australian tycoon, Alan Bond, who went bankrupt, and its support for London’s ultimately unsuccessful Canary Wharf development, undertaken by the Canadian firm Olympia & York. Nevertheless, as Pete Engardio commented in Business Week: “Booming Hong Kong provides HSBC with a cornucopia of cash.”

By 1991, HongkongBank had over 500 subsidiaries in 50 countries. In fact, its portfolio had become so expansive and complex that a new umbrella organization was formed. HSBC Holdings plc was incorporated in the United Kingdom, while its headquarters were established in Hong Kong. As a condition of its 1992 acquisition of Britain’s Midland Bank pic, however, HSBC was required by the regulatory Bank of England to move its head office to London.

The acquisition of Midland was a coup, providing HSBC with the significant presence in Europe it had previously lacked. Variously described as a merger and a takeover, the amalgamation virtually doubled HSBC’s assets and work force. The venerable Midland, the U.K.’s third largest bank, was not performing to standard at that time, being the least profitable of Britain’s “big four” banks. However, the financial health and the international experience of the parent company began attracting larger corporate customers to Midland. In addition, many individuals were subsequently won over by the telephone banking service, First Direct, introduced by Midland just before the amalgamation and strongly backed by HSBC. HSBC’s lead in technology—used, for example, to automate credit decisions and limit staff expenditure—also played a part in Midland’s recovery.

As of 1994, HSBC ranked 10th in the financial world in terms of capitalization, 15th in assets, and among the top ten in profits. Its U.S. and Australian subsidiaries, which had experienced losses, were again returning profits. Future expansion in America, Europe, and Asia was planned/According to the Investors’ Chronicle, the group’s international success continued to be substantially fueled by the “phenomenal profitability of its Far East base [which] has given HSBC the strength necessary to pursue international expansion.” Indeed, HongkongBank was so securely established in Hong Kong that it was known locally simply as “the Bank.” Although the company faced some uncertainty regarding its future, as Britain was due to relinquish all control of the territory to China by 1997, HonkkongBank noted that it had received assurances from Peking that its future would be safeguarded. Optimistic for the company’s future, chief executive John Bond commented: “In Chinese, ‘threat’ and ‘opportunity’ are the same character.”

Principal Subsidiaries

British Bank of the Middle East; Carl-ingford Insurance Co. Ltd. (Hong Kong); Concord Leasing Inc.; Hang Seng Bank Ltd. (Hong Kong; 61%); Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd. (Hong Kong); Hongkong Bank of Australia Ltd.; Hongkong Bank of Canada; James Capel & Co. Ltd.; Marine Midland Bank; Midland Bank pic; Samuel Montagu & Co. Ltd.; Wardley Ltd. (Hong Kong); Way-foong Finance Ltd. (Hong Kong).

HSBC Holdings plc

HSBC Holdings plc

FOUNDING OF HONGKONGBANK

EXPANDING RAPIDLY IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY

COMPANY PERSPECTIVES

WORLD WARS LEADING TO NUMEROUS DIFFICULTIES

KEY DATES

POSTWAR RECOVERY AND EXPANSION

FORMING HSBC HOLDINGS PLC IN 1991

"THE WORLD'S LOCAL BANK" IN 2002

PRINCIPAL SUBSIDIARIES

PRINCIPAL DIVISIONS

PRINCIPAL OPERATING UNITS

PRINCIPAL COMPETITORS

FURTHER READING

HSBC Holdings plc

HSBC Holdings plc

Founding of HongkongBank

Expanded Rapidly in the Late 19th Century

World Wars Led to Numerous Difficulties

Company Perspectives:

Postwar Recovery

International Expansion, 1950s Through 1970s

North American Expansion Marked the 1980s

Formation of HSBC Holdings, Acquisition of Midland Bank (U.K.) and the Early 1990s

Principal Subsidiaries

Further Reading

HSBC Holdings plc

HSBC Holdings plc

Principal Subsidiaries

Further Reading

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HSBC Holdings plc

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