HSBC

HSBC Holdings plc is a British universal bank and financial services group based in London, with strong historical and commercial links to East Asia and operations worldwide. As of an April 2026 report by S&P Global, it ranks as Europe’s second-largest bank by assets, holding $3.212 trillion, which also makes it the eighth-largest bank globally by total assets, behind Bank of America, and the third-largest non-state-owned bank in the world.

The bank’s origins go back to a Hong Kong trading house. It was founded in 1865 in Hong Kong, opening branches in Shanghai the same year, and was formally incorporated in 1866 as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. In 1991, the current parent company, HSBC Holdings plc, was set up in London, and the original Hong Kong–based bank became its fully owned subsidiary. The following year, HSBC acquired Midland Bank, making it one of the largest domestic banks in the United Kingdom.

HSBC operates offices, branches, and subsidiaries in 57 countries and territories across Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America, serving roughly 39 million customers. In 2025, Forbes ranked it 15th in its Global 2000 list, which evaluates companies by sales, profits, assets, and market value. The bank has a primary share listing on the London Stock Exchange, with secondary listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Bermuda Stock Exchange, and its shares are also traded on the New York Stock Exchange through an American depositary receipt programme. It is a component of the Hang Seng Index and the FTSE 100 Index.

**History**

**Foundation**

After the British made Hong Kong a crown colony following the First Opium War, merchants from other parts of the British Empire, now based in Hong Kong, saw the need for a bank to finance the growing trade—through Hong Kong and often Shanghai—between China and India, the rest of the British Empire, and Europe. This trade involved goods, produce, and merchandise of all kinds, especially opium, which was cultivated in or transited through British India. Thomas Sutherland of P&O, the founder, wanted a bank run on “sound Scottish banking principles.” The original location was considered crucial, so the founders chose Wardley House in Hong Kong because its construction was based on some of the best feng shui in colonial Hong Kong. After raising HK$5 million in capital stock, the bank began operations on 3 March 1865. It opened a Shanghai branch in April that year and soon started issuing locally denominated banknotes in both the colony and Shanghai. The bank was incorporated in Hong Kong as The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Ordinance (Numbers 2 and 5 of 1866), and a branch in Yokohama, Japan, opened in 1866. Its shares were among the 13 securities initially traded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and they remained listed there until the Japanese closed the exchange in 1941.

**Business development**

Sir Thomas Jackson became chief manager in 1876. Over his 26-year tenure, the bank became a leading institution in Asia. Expansion followed, with new buildings in Bangkok (1921), Manila (1922), and Shanghai (1923), and a new head office in Hong Kong in 1935. Banknote issuance replaced other regional forms of currency, such as silver taels, due to political and economic instability, and HSBC gained significant influence as a result.

**International expansion**

Michael Turner became chief manager in 1953 and worked to diversify the business. By the end of his tenure in 1962, he had established The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation of California in 1955 and acquired The British Bank of the Middle East and the Mercantile Bank (based in India) in August 1959. Jake Saunders succeeded him in 1962. In 1964, the role of chief manager was replaced by an executive chairmanship as the top executive position. During the Konfrontasi period in the 1960s, Indonesian forces bombed the MacDonald House building in Singapore (then used by HSBC) just months after Singapore gained independence from Malaysia. Three people died, 33 were injured, and the two Indonesian military officers responsible were tried and executed. The current HSBC building in Hong Kong, designed by Sir Norman Foster, was completed in 1986 and was considered one of the most expensive and technologically advanced buildings in the world, costing HK$5.3 billion.

**Creation of the HSBC Group**

On 6 October 1989, the bank was registered as a regulated bank with the Banking Commissioner of the Government of Hong Kong. HSBC Holdings plc, originally incorporated in England and Wales as a non-trading, dormant shelf company, completed its transformation on 25 March 1991 into the parent holding company of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, now a subsidiary. This move prepared for the purchase of the UK-based Midland Bank and the impending transfer of Hong Kong’s sovereignty to China. HSBC Holdings’ acquisition of Midland Bank was completed in 1992, giving it a substantial market presence in the UK. As a condition of the takeover, HSBC Holdings plc was required to move its world headquarters from Hong Kong to London in 1993. Major acquisitions in South America began with the purchase of Brazil’s Banco Bamerindus for $1 billion in March 1997 and Argentina’s Roberts SA de Inversiones for $600 million in May 1997. In May 1999, HSBC expanded in the United States by buying Republic National Bank of New York for $10.3 billion.

**2000 to 2010** Expansion into continental Europe followed.