HSBC Holdings plc is a public limited company incorporated in England and Wales in 1990, and headquartered in London since 1993. As of 2009, it is both the world's largest banking group and the world's 6th largest company according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine. Hong Kong served as the bank¹s headquarters until 1992 when it was forced to move to London as a condition of completing the acquisition of Midland Bank. Today, whilst no single geographical area dominates the group's earnings, Hong Kong still continues to be a significant source of its income. Recent acquisitions and expansion in China are returning HSBC to part of its roots. HSBC has an enormous operational base in Asia and significant lending, investment, and insurance activities around the world. The company has a global reach and financial fundamentals matched by few other banking or financial multinationals.
HSBC is listed on the London, New York, Hong Kong, Paris and Bermuda Stock Exchanges, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index and the Hang Seng Index.
History
Development of the bank
HSBC (originally the "Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation") was founded in 1865. HSBC Holdings was established in 1990 and became the parent company to The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in preparation for its purchase of Midland Bank and a change of domicile for the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong. Shares in HSBC Holdings, which gave HSBC a substantial presence in the UK, was completed in 1992. As part of the takeover conditions for the purchase of Midland, HSBC was forced to move it's world headquarters from Hong Kong to London in 1993. Major acquisitions in South America started with the purchase of 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 embarked on a major acquisition in the United States with the purchase of Republic National Bank of New York for $10.3bn.
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. Then in August 2002 HSBC acquired Grupo Financiero Bital, SA de CV, Mexico's third largest retail bank for $1.1bn.
The new headquarters of HSBC Holdings at 8 Canada Square, London officially opened in April 2003.
Then in September 2003 HSBC bought Polski Kredyt Bank SA of Poland for $7.8m.
A terrorist attack took place in November 2003: a bomb blast in Istanbul damaged the bank’s head office in Turkey, causing several deaths and hundreds of injuries.
In June 2004 HSBC expanded into China buying 19.9% of the Bank of Communications of Shanghai.
In 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 February 2010, HSBC Group CEO Office will be permanently based in Hong Kong, its birthplace.
Subprime crisis
In November 2002 HSBC expanded further in the United States. Under the chairmanship of Sir John Bond, it spent £9bn (US$15.5bn) 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 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.
The business turned sour, costing HSBC US$62bn. 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."; analyst Colin Morton said, "the takeover was an absolute disaster".
Although it was at the centre of the subprime storm, the wider group has weathered the economic crisis 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 lent £4 billion to other UK banks. 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.
Operations
Corporate profile
In February 2008, HSBC was named the world's most valuable banking brand by The Banker magazine. Not known for marked fluctuations in securities exchanges around the world relative to its rivals, HSBC is more well known in banking circles for its conservative and risk-averse approach in its business operations - a company tradition going back to the 19th century. In its technical management, however, HSBC has recently suffered a series of headline-making incidents in which some customer data were allegedly leaked or simply went missing. Although the consequences turned out to be small, the embarrassing effect on the group's image did not go unnoticed.
As of April 2 , 2008 , according to Forbes magazine, HSBC was the fourth largest bank in the world in terms of assets ($2,348.98 billion), the second largest in terms of sales ($146.50 billion), the largest in terms of market value ($180.81 billion). It was also the most profitable bank in the world with $19.13 billion in net income in 2007 (compared to Citigroup's $3.62 billion and Bank of America's $14.98 billion in the same period).
HSBC is by far the largest bank both in the United Kingdom and in Hong Kong and prints most of Hong Kong's local currency in its own name. Since the end of 2005, HSBC has been rated the largest banking group in the world by Tier 1 capital.
The HSBC Group has a significant presence in each of the world's major financial markets, with the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe each representing around one third of the business. With 8,500 offices in 86 countries, 210,000 shareholders, 330,000 staff and 128 million customers worldwide, HSBC arguably has the most international presence among the world's multinational banking giants.
The HSBC Group operates as a number of local banks around the world, which explains its advertising tagline "The World's Local Bank." Outlined below are countries which, in 2007, generated the top 20 profit before tax figures, with the addition of the United States as specific issues exclude that country from the top 20 for 2007. For details of other group companies see Category:HSBC.
Americas
HSBC Bank Argentina SA has around 150 branches throughout Argentina providing a full range of banking and financial products and services to over 1.2 million customers.
HSBC acquired The Bank of Bermuda Limited in February 2004 for US$1.3bn. Founded in 1889, Bank of Bermuda is a leading provider of fund administration, trust, custody, asset management and banking services. Since the acquisition the group has focused its global efforts in some areas of these services on the island.
HSBC Bank Brasil SA is HSBC’s largest presence in South America. HSBC is now among the ten largest banks in Brazil, with more than 1,700 branches and sub-branches in 550 Brazilian cities.
HSBC Bank Canada is the seventh largest bank in Canada, with offices in every province except for Prince Edward Island, and is the
Panama Offshore Legal Law Firm :: Offshore Banking & Offshore ...
Panama Law Firm providing offshore banking services, offshore bank accounts, offshore company formation, asset protection planning, offshore corporation incorporation and private ...
Panama Bank Account – Currency Selection – Offshore Articles and ...
Panama Bank Accounts. Private Offshore Panama Bank Account; Panama Bank Secrecy Laws ... IRS to Open Offices in Panama, China and Australia; FTC Going After Bloggers
Bank Failures / Collapse: Panama Offshore vs USA / Canada / Europe ...
Currently there is a huge collapse in the global banking sector, which started in the USA and is quickly spreading to other countries and is expected to trigger a global recession.
Offshore News - Panama Legal Law Firm
Panama Bank Accounts. Private Offshore Panama Bank Account; Panama Bank Secrecy Laws ... IRS to Open Offices in Panama, China and Australia; FTC Going After Bloggers
Panama Company, Panama Offshore formation, Panama IBC, Panama offshore ...
China ... and other incentives are available for those Panama offshore ... can help your bottom line or how having a Panama bank ...
Bank of China - Company profile & brands
Rapport global sur Bank of China. Global social, financial and ... Financial delinquency [+], more frequent offshore locations ... Via Espana Las Sabanas, Panama & SWIFT BKCHPAPAXXX :
Offshore company registry:Bank of China
Offshore bank accounts ; Consultation; FAQ; About us; Contact us ... Panama Company ; Samoa Company ; Seychelles Company ... Bank of China，or Bank of China Limited in full, is one of ...
Power Point Management Ltd.Investment consultant/Offshore Company ...
... Kong(HK)/USA/UK/China Investment/BVI/Vietnam Investment/Labuan Company/Thailand Investment/Offshore Registration/Offshore Bank ... Such as offshore registered in Panama, due to ...
鉿泰
panama company>>| cook company>>| bremuda company>>... openibg offshore bank>>| issn\isbn >>| chinese notarization ... • hang seng bank • ocbc bank (china) limited • deutsche bank
Power Point Management Ltd. /Offshore Company/Company Formation ...
Although you have Panama IBC documents be notarized by China embassy based in USA or ... when you decide to make an investment in China/ Vietnam, make sure that your foreign (offshore ...