{"id":26626,"date":"2015-04-25T04:46:46","date_gmt":"2015-04-25T02:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/?p=26626"},"modified":"2015-04-25T04:47:07","modified_gmt":"2015-04-25T02:47:07","slug":"26626","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/26626\/","title":{"rendered":"HSBC to Hong Kong?"},"content":{"rendered":"

HSBC proclaims that the world is its oyster.<\/p>\n

HSBC Holdings Plc, less than two weeks before Britain\u2019s general election, said it\u2019s reviewing whether to move its headquarters out of the country because of rising tax and regulatory costs.<\/p>\n

A move to Hong Kong, viewed by analysts as the bank\u2019s most likely destination should it relocate, would unpick a structure that\u2019s existed since the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. acquired Britain\u2019s Midland Bank Plc in 1992. A transfer should cost no more than $1.5 billion because HSBC still has a base in the former British colony, said Chirantan Barua, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work is underway,\u201d Chairman Douglas Flint told shareholders at the bank\u2019s annual meeting in London on Friday. \u201cThe question is a complex one and it is too soon to say how long this will take or what the conclusion will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Flint has been under pressure from investors to consider moving from the U.K., where a levy imposed on banks\u2019 global balance sheets following the financial crisis cost HSBC 750 million pounds ($1.1 billion) last year, more than any other lender. Europe accounts for less than a quarter of profit at the bank, which operates in more than 70 nations.<\/div>\n

\u201cThey may not like the U.K., but I\u2019m not sure there\u2019s exactly going to be a raft of people queuing up to have them\u201d because of the size of HSBC\u2019s $2.6 trillion balance sheet, said Edward Firth, head of European bank research at Macquarie Group Ltd. in London. \u201cHong Kong is the only serious possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority noted what it called HSBC\u2019s \u201cdeep historical links\u201d and said it would take a \u201cpositive attitude\u201d should the lender decide to move.<\/p>\n

Finance Director Iain Mackay said in an interview: HSBC won\u2019t just look at Hong Kong, but other countries with a strong regulatory framework including Canada, the U.S., China, Australia, Singapore, France and Germany.<\/p>\n

HSBC also said it\u2019s concerned about Britain\u2019s potential exit from the European Union.<\/p>\n

Standard Chartered, another British bank that like HSBC makes most of its profit in Asia, is also being urged by investors to relocate because of the cost of being in London. The U.K. levy cost Standard Chartered $366 million last year, accounting for about 9 percent of its $4.2 billion of pretax profit.<\/p>\n

\"Hong<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HSBC proclaims that the world is its oyster. HSBC Holdings Plc, less than two weeks before Britain\u2019s general election, said it\u2019s reviewing whether to move its headquarters out of the country because of rising tax and regulatory costs. A move … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-banks","category-corruption","category-finance"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t