HSBC.

HSBC is one of the major banking and financial services organizations in the world.

HSBC Holdings plc is a global banking and financial services holding corporation based in the United Kingdom. With total assets of US$2.558 trillion, it is the world’s seventh biggest bank and the largest in Europe (as of December 2018). HSBC’s origins may be traced back to an hong in Hong Kong, and its current form was founded in London in 1991 by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation to function as a new group holding company. The bank’s beginnings are primarily in Hong Kong and, to a lesser degree, Shanghai, where branches were first established in 1865. The letters of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation were combined to form the moniker HSBC. In 1866, the corporation was legally formed. The corporation still considers the United Kingdom and Hong Kong to be its “home markets.”

HSBC has around 3,900 offices in 67 countries and territories throughout Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America, as well as approximately 38 million clients. According to Forbes magazine’s composite metric, it was the world’s sixth-largest public business in 2014.

Commercial Banking, Global Banking and Markets (investment banking), Retail Banking and Wealth Management, and Global Private Banking are the four business segments of HSBC.

HSBC is a component of the Hang Seng Index and the FTSE 100 Index, and has dual main listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange. It has a market value of £102.7 billion as of 6 July 2012, making it the second-largest corporation listed on the London Stock Exchange after Royal Dutch Shell. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Euronext Paris, and the Bermuda Stock Exchange as a secondary market.

Under the banner Swiss Leaks, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published material regarding HSBC’s business practices in February 2015. According to the ICIJ, the bank benefitted from dealing with tax evaders and other customers. The BBC stated that HSBC had exerted pressure on the media not to publicize the scandal, with the British daily The Guardian saying that HSBC advertising had been “paused” after The Guardian’s coverage of the topic. The Daily Telegraph’s top political analyst, Peter Oborne, resigned; in an open letter, he claimed the publication suppressed unfavorable articles and discontinued investigations into HSBC due to the bank’s advertising.

HSBC was sued in 2016 by Mexican families engaged in organized-crime gang killings for processing monies (“money laundering”) for the Sinaloa cartel.

• Operating Status: Active
• Business Type: Private
• Headquarters: London, England, United Kingdom
• Founded Date: Apr 1st, 1865
• Founders: Sir Thomas Sutherland