Executive Summary
Headquartered in London, HSBC is one of the largest banking and financial services organisations in the world. HSBC's international network comprises over 9,800 offices in 77 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. Companby has listings on the London, Hong Kong, New York, Paris and Bermuda stock exchanges. Through an international network linked by advanced technology, including a rapidly growing e-commerce capability, HSBC provides a comprehensive range of financial services: personal financial services; commercial banking; corporate, investment banking and markets; private banking; and other activities.
Company History
- Founded in 1865 to finance the growing trade between China and Europe after the Opium Wars by a Scotsman named Thomas Sutherland. The Group expanded primarily through offices established in the bank’s name until the mid-1950s when it
began to create or acquire subsidiaries. - In 1980, the Bank launched a hostile takeover bid for the Royal Bank of Scotland, although the bid was blocked by the British government.
- In 1980, HSBC acquired a 51% stake in Marine Midland Bank, of the United States of America, and continued its expansion with the establishment of Hongkong Bank of Canada in 1981 and HongkongBank of Australia Limited in 1986 and then Midland Bank in the UK in 1990.
- In 1991 HSBC Holdings plc was established to act as a parent company to the group.
- The Group has undertaken numerous acquisition including most infamously where, In November 2002, HSBC expanded in the United States, spending £9bn to acquire Household Finance Corporation (HFC), a US credit card issuer and subprime lender
See http://www.hsbc.com/1/2/about/history or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hongkong_and_Shanghai_Banking_Corporation for more details on the history.
Current Events
HSBC did not need to take government funds when other institutions were struggling, although it tapped existing shareholders for more money through a successful rights issue in April, raising $17.8bn (£10.5bn) to strengthen its competitive position [1]
Business Model
HSBC’s strategic direction reflects its desire to be 'the world’s local bank’ with its uniquely cosmopolitan customer base. The combination of local knowledge and international breadth is supported by a substantial financial capability founded on balance sheet strength, largely attributable to the scale of the Group’s retail deposit bases. HSBC is progressively reshaping its business by investing primarily in faster growing markets
and, in the more developed markets, by focusing on businesses which have…
