HSBC

HSBC has around 6,600 offices in 80 countries and territories across Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, North America and South America, and around 60 million customers. As of 2014, it was the world's sixth-largest public company, according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine.

HSBC is organised within four business groups: Commercial Banking; Global Banking and Markets investment banking Retail Banking and Wealth Management; and Global Private Banking.

HSBC has a dual primary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the Hang Seng Index and the FTSE 100 Index. As of 6 July 2012 it had a market capitalisation of £102.7 billion, the second-largest company listed on the London Stock Exchange, after Royal Dutch Shell. It has secondary listings on the New York Stock Exchange, Euronext Paris and the Bermuda Stock Exchange.

In February 2015 the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released information about the business conduct of HSBC under the title Swiss Leaks. The ICIJ alleges that the bank profited from doing business with tax evaders and other clients. BBC reported that HSBC had put pressure on media not to report about the controversy, with British newspaper The Guardian claiming HSBC advertising had been put "on pause" after The Guardian's coverage of the matter.Peter Oborne, chief political commentator at The Daily Telegraph resigned from the paper; in an open letter he claimed the newspaper suppressed negative stories and dropped investigations into HSBC because of the bank's advertising.

The HSBC Main Building in 1901 in Hong Kong, the headquarters of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation from 1886 to 1933 for its Hong Kong operation.

The HSBC Building in 2005 in Shanghai, the headquarters of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation from 1923 to 1955 for its Shanghai operation.
For more information on the history of HSBC prior to the founding of HSBC Holdings in 1991, see The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.
The Hong kong and Shanghai Bank was founded by Scotsman Sir Thomas Sutherland in the then British colony of Hong Kong on 3 March 1865, and in Shanghai a month later, benefiting from the start of trading into China, including opium trading. It was formally incorporated as The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation by an Ordinance of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong on 14 August 1866 In 1980, HSBC acquired a 51% shareholding in US-based Marine Midland Bank, which it extended to full ownership in 1987. On 6 October 1989, it was renamed by the Legislative Council, by an amendment to its governing ordinance originally made in 1929, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, and became registered as a regulated bank with the then Banking Commissioner of the Government of Hong Kong.

HSBC Holdings plc, originally incorporated in England and Wales, in the United Kingdom, as "Vernat Trading Company Limited" on 1 January 1959 and then renamed "Vernat Eastern Agencies Limited" later in the same year, was by then a non-trading, dormant shelf company under a different, nominal name, when it completed its transformation on 25 March 1991into the parent holding company to the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited now as a subsidiary, in preparation for its purchase of the UK-based Midland Bank and the impending transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China. HSBC Holdings' acquisition of Midland Bank was completed in 1992 and gave HSBC a substantial market presence in the United Kingdom. As part of the takeover conditions for the acquisition, HSBC Holdings plc was required to relocate its world headquarters from Hong Kong to London in 1993.

Major acquisitions in South America started with the purchase of the Banco Bamerindus of Brazil for $1bn in March 1997 and the acquisition of Roberts SA de Inversiones of Argentina for $600m in May 1997. In May 1999, HSBC expanded its presence in the United States with the purchase of Republic National Bank of New York for $10.3bn.

The HSBC Main Building in Hong Kong, which was designed by Norman Foster and completed in 1985
Expansion into Continental Europe took place in April 2000 with the acquisition of Crédit Commercial de France, a large French bank for £6.6bn. In July 2001 HSBC bought Demirbank, an insolvent Turkish bank.In July 2002, Arthur Andersen announced that HSBC USA, Inc., through a new subsidiary, Wealth and Tax Advisory Services USA Inc. WTAS, would purchase a portion of Andersen's tax practice. The new HSBC Private Client Services Group would serve the wealth and tax advisory needs of high-net-worth individuals. Then in August 2002 HSBC acquired Grupo Financiero Bital, SA de CV, Mexico's third largest retail bank for $1.1bn.

In November 2002, HSBC expanded further in the United States. Under the chairmanship of Sir John Bond, it spent £9 billion (US$15.5 billion) to acquire Household Finance Corporation HFC, a US credit card issuer and subprime lender In a 2003 cover story, The Banker noted "when banking historians look back, they may conclude that it was the deal of the first decade of the 21st century". Under the new name of HSBC Finance, the division was the second largest subprime lender in the US.
On 22 November 2001, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp would provide a fixed-rate mortgage to buyers of Cheung Kong Holdings Victoria Towers residential development.
The new headquarters of HSBC Holdings at 8 Canada Square, London officially opened in April 2003.
In September 2003 HSBC bought Polski Kredyt Bank SA of Poland for $7.8m. In June 2004 HSBC expanded into China buying 19.9% of the Bank of Communications of ShanghaiIn the United Kingdom HSBC acquired Marks & Spencer Retail Financial Services Holdings Ltd for £763m in December 2004.Acquisitions in 2005 included Metris Inc, a US credit card issuer for $1.6bn in August and 70.1% of Dar es Salaam Investment Bank of Iraq in October. In April 2006, HSBC bought the 90 branches in Argentina of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro for $155m In December 2007 HSBC acquired the Chinese Bank in Taiwan.In May 2008, HSBC acquired IL&FS Investment, an Indian retail broking firm.

In 2005, Bloomberg Markets magazine accused HSBC of money-laundering for drug dealers and state sponsors of terrorism. Then-CEO Stephen Green said that "This was a singular and wholly irresponsible attack on the bank's international compliance procedures", but subsequent investigation indicated that it was accurate and proved that the bank was involved in money laundering for the Sinaloa Cartel and throughout Mexico.] U.S. Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer characterised HSBC compliance during this period as "stunning failures of oversight - and worse .The record of dysfunction that prevailed at HSBC for many years was astonishing."

In March 2009, HSBC announced that it would shut down the branch network of its HSBC Finance arm in the U.S., leading to nearly 6,000 job losses and leaving only the credit card business to continue operating. Chairman Stephen Green stated, "HSBC has a reputation for telling it as it is. With the benefit of hindsight, this is an acquisition we wish we had not undertaken.According to analyst Colin Morton, "the takeover was an absolute disaster

Although it was at the centre of the subprime storm, the wider group has weathered the financial crisis of 2007–2010 better than other global banks. According to Bloomberg, "HSBC is one of world's strongest banks by some measures". When HM Treasury required all UK banks to increase their capital in October 2007, the group transferred £750 million to London within hours, and announced that it had just le In March 2009, it announced that it had made US$9.3bn of profit in 2008 and announced a £12.5bn US$17.7bn; HK$138bn rights issue to enable it to buy other banks that were struggling to survive. However, uncertainty over the rights' issue's implications for institutional investors caused volatility in the Hong Kong stock market: on 9 March 2009 HSBC's share price fell 24.14%, with 12 million shares sold in the last few seconds of trading....