Great Britain/ India/ Hong Kong Bank Mergers & Acquisitions (Mercantile Bank)

Photo: A bill of exchange, a sort of promissory note for making payment, dating from 1859. This is one of the earliest surviving documents from the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China, which was known as the Mercantile Bank of Bombay between 1853 and 1857; the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China between 1857 and 1892; the Mercantile Bank of India between 1893 and 1957, and the Mercantile Bank Ltd. between 1958 and 1984.

Mercantile Bank Ltd.

The Mercantile Bank Ltd. had a very storied past full of ups and downs. It was once upon a time a local Indian bank, then it became a British bank, and eventually a Hong Kong bank in its final decades. The bank was founded in 1853 as the Mercantile Bank of Bombay as a trade finance bank. By 1857, the bank had opened offices in London, Madras (now Chennai), Colombo, Kandy, Calcutta (now Kolkata), Singapore, Hong Kong, Canton (now Guangzhou), and Shanghai.

In that same year of Mercantile Bank of Bombay’s founding, however, the establishment of a rival British overseas bank also with a focus on British India, China and the colonies in the Orient applied for and obtained a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria, and called itself the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China (today’s Standard Chartered plc).

A Royal Charter used to be the only means to establish a public or private corporation, but by the mid-19^th century it certainly was not the sole process to do so. While a Royal Charter defines a corporation’s privileges and purposes such as those of a town or a city, the granting of such by the Victorian era no longer indicated, for example, Royal patronage, nor implied or express state guarantee in times of troubles. Even though a Royal Charter is technically granted only to a body or business which can demonstrate pre-eminence and stability, constitutionally or legally, there is no reason to believe that a “chartered” business is any more or less likely to be successful than those without a charter.

Nevertheless, the Mercantile Bank of Bombay felt that it was at a competitive disadvantage and did not want to be outdone by the regal sounding Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, which had a habit of promoting itself as being “Incorporated in England by Royal Charter 1853.” Therefore, in 1857, the Mercantile Bank of Bombay also obtained a Royal Charter and renamed itself the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China, and moved its head office from Bombay to London. In doing so, the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was often mixed up with the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China – the fact that both banks were founded in 1853 doubtlessly added to the confusion.

Following the tradition in Great Britain at the time, banknotes in the British colonies were often issued by certain authorised commercial banks. After receiving the Royal Charter, the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China gained the privilege to issue banknotes in Hong Kong (starting in 1859), in Penang (starting in the 1860s) and later also in Malacca and Singapore. As a matter of fact, the bank played a prominent role in the early banking development in the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States, which became today’s Malaysia and Singapore.

In 1892, however, the Chartered Mercantile Bank suffered a liquidity crisis and had its Royal Charter revoked. It was re-capitalised as the Mercantile Bank of India in 1893, but it ceased to issue all banknotes.

In the early 20^th century, growth returned to the Mercantile Bank of India and it, for example, acquired the locally-incorporated Bank of Calcutta (founded 1895). 

In 1912, the Mercantile Bank regained the privilege to issue banknotes in Hong Kong. It also issued banknotes in the Chinese port city of Shanghai for years during the early 20^th century. (Between 1846 and 1945, Great Britain controlled “concessions” -- extraterritorial jurisdictions -- in China, and the Shanghai International Settlement was probably the most well-known one of all.) Surviving 19^th century banknotes issued by the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China from Hong Kong, Singapore, Malacca, and Penang; and even mid-20^th century examples by the Mercantile Bank of India from Hong Kong and Shanghai are very rare, and can command very significant valuations at auctions.

In 1916, the Mercantile Bank of India took over the Bank of Mauritius. This was the third bank of the same name – none of them were related to one another -- to have existed in Mauritius. This particular Bank of Mauritius was established in 1894 to take over the local operations of the Oriental Bank Corporation that had gone bankrupt. The Oriental Bank Corporation was another prominent Anglo-Indian bank that was active in British India, Ceylon, Singapore, Hong Kong and China in the mid-19^th century before its demise.

While rival British overseas banks like the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) have had a strong focus in Hong Kong, China and the rest of the Far East, the Mercantile Bank’s main focus was in British India, where the bank had half of its branches.

In 1947, British India gained independence and became India and Pakistan. The newly formed nation-states wanted to nurture their own domestic industries and became increasingly restrictive to the British businesses including the Mercantile Bank of India. New regulations in place banned foreign banks from opening new branches, and growth in the 1950s for the Mercantile Bank in India was much hampered.

Towards the late 1950s, it was believed that the Mercantile Bank of India would be vulnerable to a takeover by an American bank eager to have a presence (however restrictive) in the Indian market. Ironically, right around the same time, the decision was made to drop the reference of India from the name and the bank became the Mercantile Bank Ltd.

In 1957, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation pre-empted the rumoured American interest by first acquiring a 20% stake in Mercantile Bank Ltd., before fully acquiring the remaining shares in 1959.

HSBC kept the Mercantile Bank operations separate and independent for many years. In 1966, Mercantile Bank relocated its head office from London to Hong Kong. Interestingly, Mercantile Bank continued to be a banknote issuer in Hong Kong until 1974 (along with HSBC and the Standard Chartered Bank). In 1984, finally Mercantile Bank’s operations were integrated into HSBC, except for the small Thai operations, which were sold to Citibank. The sale of this small unit of the Mercantile Bank appeared to have caused much confusion about the final years of the bank, as many sources, including Wikipedia, often suggest mistakenly that HSBC sold the entire Mercantile Bank to Citibank in 1984.

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China Bank Mergers & Acquisitions (Bank of China)

Photo: Bank of China (Hong Kong)'s main branch in Central district, Hong Kong.


Bank of China Ltd. (中國銀行, 中国银行)
China’s banking history clearly reflects the country’s turbulent history in the 20th century. In 1905, the sickly and backward Imperial China established the Da Qing Hubu Bank (which means the Great Ching [Dynasty] Finance Ministry Bank) in a largely failed attempt to better manage the country’s fiscal and monetary policies. At the time, modern commercial banking and trade financing in China was typically provided by foreign banks, with British, French, German, Russian, Japanese and American banks dominating the marketplace in major port cities.

On October 10, 1911, forces led by Dr. Sun Yat-Sen overthrew the Qing (Ching) dynasty, ending two thousand years of imperial rule and establishing the Republic of China. In 1912, the defunct Da Qing Bank was re-born as the Bank of China and given central bank functions. The new bank established its headquarters in Da Qing Bank’s former premises in Shanghai’s Bund district. The new entity was a dual state-owned commercial bank and a central bank.

However, the establishment of the new republic did not quell China’s political unrest. Quite the contrary, fighting between various fractions and warlords continued and worsened for the next four decades. Despite this political instability, Bank of China opened a Hong Kong branch in 1917, which eventually evolved into Bank of China (Hong Kong).

In 1928, Bank of China re-located its head office back to Beijing, and was granted the power to handle China’s foreign exchange transactions. To accomplish this new task, the bank opened a London office in 1929, marking the first time a Chinese bank had opened an office outside of Asia.

Meanwhile, from 1927 onward, the Kuomintang (Nationalist) forces and the home-grown Communist forces fought for the control of China, further sickening its national health and economy. The Chinese Civil War coincided with the rise of Japan’s imperial militarism, which aimed to dominate and colonize the entire Far East. Japan invaded China in July 1937, plunging the country into a lengthy and bloody war for the next eight years. The Japanese invasion, ironically, suspended the Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communists as they joined forces to fight off the Japanese army. The Sino-Japanese War became part of the larger World War II in 1941, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and invaded other countries in the Far East.

Between 20 million and up to 35 million casualties in China were attributed to the Sino-Japanese War by the time Japan was defeated in 1945. Sadly, the Chinese Civil War resumed as soon as Japan was defeated. Over the next four years, the Communists gained more and more ground and drove the losing Kuomintang to the island of Taiwan in 1949. This important event split China into two: with the original Republic of China founded by Dr. Sun Yat-Sen in 1911 now controlling the island of Taiwan, and the Communists controlling the mainland and establishing the People’s Republic of China in October 1949.

Bank of China itself was also split. The fleeing Kuomintang brought with them the bank's liquid assets and bullion to Taiwan while the Communists seized the bank's mainland Chinese operations and branch network. The two sides confusingly retained the name Bank of China initially, due to both regimes’ claims of legitimacy and false hope that they would retake the other’s territory soon.

Subsequently in 1971, the Republic of China (Taiwan’s) Bank of China was privatized and renamed the International Commercial Bank of China, which became today’s Mega International Commercial Bank, which is still based in Taipei, Republic of China in Taiwan.

Meanwhile, Communist China’s Bank of China lost its central bank status to the newly-created People's Bank of China, but held on to its foreign exchange bank designation status. Throughout the 1950s, all foreign banks were gradually evicted from China as it rid itself of foreign powers.

Under Chairman Mao Zedong’s regime, Communist China then plunged into three decades of horrific social turmoil, famines and class struggles during which citizens spied on and terrorized each other as they accused each other as being Kuomintang supporters, capitalists, small business owners, intellects, political dissenters or whatever groups were out of favour at the time. The Chinese banking industry during this period was bureaucratic, backward and corrupt. It was only in 1979, three years after the death of Chairman Mao, that China finally adopted an “Open Door Policy” as it opened up to foreign trade, investments and tourism again.

However, true modernization of China’s banking industry only began in the mid-1990s, when regulatory and managerial reforms began to slowly transform Chinese banks towards more market-driven and risk-conscious enterprises. In 1994, Bank of China embarked on a major expansion plan to open more branches across the country.

In 2003, China's State Council approved the joint-stock restructuring of its state-owned commercial banks, of which Bank of China was one of the pilot banks in the process. One year later, Bank of China Ltd. was formally incorporated in Beijing. The Chinese government was said to have injected USD $22.5-billion in new capital to the bank in 2003 to raise its Tier 1 capital to international standards.

In what was then the world's largest IPO since 2000, Bank of China Ltd. raised HKD $87.0-billion (USD $11.2-billion) in May 2006 when it class "H" shares were listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange. As China was still inexperienced in managing its own stock exchange, securities underwriting and regulation, essentially all of China’s major state-owned enterprises were initially floated on the Hong Kong stock exchange before a mainland Chinese listing during the early 2000s. Then in July, 2006, Bank of China became the first lender to list its class "A" shares on the Shanghai stock exchange, raising another USD $2.5-billion.


Bank of China (Hong Kong)

Due to the close demographic, economic and trade relations between China and Hong Kong, Bank of China opened a branch in the then British colony in 1917. Eight other Chinese banks that would eventually become part of Bank of China had retail branches in Hong Kong, namely: the Kwangtung Provincial Bank, Sin Hua Bank, the China & South Sea Bank, Kincheng Banking Corporation, the China State Bank, the National Commercial Bank, the Yien Yieh Commercial Bank and the Bank of Communications. In addition, Chinese investors also established two Hong-Kong-registered banks locally: the Hua Chiao Commercial Bank and Po Sang Bank.

Following the Communists’ takeover of mainland China in 1949, the banking sector in China was nationalized and re-organized into a number of state-owned banks.  The Hong Kong operations of the aforementioned eight Chinese were take over by Bank of China's Hong Kong branch during the 1950s. Interestingly, these eight banks' Hong Kong operations continued under their own management and brands even though they were subsidiaries of Bank of China (Hong Kong), which was also known as BOCHK.

In the post-1949 era, Bank of China also acquired control of two more Hong Kong-based banks: Nanyang Commercial Bank and in 1970, the Chiyu Banking Corporation. For many years, BOCHK plus its 12 subsidiary banks were referred to as the 中銀十三行 (“BOC 13 Banks”) by the local press. The BOC 13 Banks each had its own administration and branch network. Needless to say, the arrangement created lots of redundancies and inefficiency, with sister banks often competing with each other for business. It was only in the 1980s that a common computer database system and platform was implemented across all 13 banks.

As China prepared for the 1997 turnover of Hong Kong from a British colony to an autonomous region of China, BOCHK aimed to play a much larger role in the local banking market. In October 2001, the Kwangtung Provincial Bank, Sin Hua Bank, the China & South Sea Bank, Kincheng Banking Corporation, the China State Bank, the National Commercial Bank, the Yien Yieh Commercial Bank, Po Sang Bank and Hua Chiao Commerical Bank were merged and consolidated into Bank of China (Hong Kong). Nanyang Commercial Bank and Chiyu Banking Corporation kept their own management and branding despite being subsidiaries of BOCHK.

Meanwhile, BOCHK returned the Hong Kong operations of Bank of Communications to China's Bank of Communications in 1998, which was originally founded in 1908, dismantled in 1958 and re-born in 1987 as China's first state-owned joint-stock commercial bank.  So technically the BOC 13 Banks in Hong Kong became the BOC 12 Banks in that year.

As another important step for Bank of China to take a much more important role in post-British-colonial Hong Kong, BOCHK was given the privilege to issue Hong Kong's banknotes in 1994, joining HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank.  BOCHK was floated on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in October 2002. As of the end of 2015, Bank of China controlled 66% of BOCHK.

Recent transaction(s):

• In 2008, Bank of China agreed to buy a 20% stake in French-based La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild for Eur 236-million (USD $340-million). The two planned to develop private-banking and asset management services for China's nouveau riche. The Rothschilds' private and merchant banking business dates back to the 1740s.
• The above deal was scrapped in April 2009, after Bank of China failed to win regulatory approval from the Chinese government.
• In December 2010, Bank of China raised CNY 59.7-billion (HKD $69.6-billion, USD $8.96-billion) from rights issues in Hong Kong and Shanghai to replenish capital following the lending boom in 2009.
• In December 2015, Bank of China's 66%-owned Bank of China (Hong Kong) agreed to sells its Hong Kong-based Nanyang Commercial Bank (NCB) to China Cinda Asset Management Co. Ltd. for HKD $68-billion (USD $8.77-billion). Nanyang Commercial operated 42 branches in Hong Kong and 18 in China.
  

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Great Britain Bank Mergers & Acquisitions (Standard Chartered)

Photo: Hong Kong has been Standard Chartered's most profitable market for well over 100 years. This is a (Standard) Chartered Bank's HKD $10 banknote from the early 1980s. The bank's Hong Kong headquarters featured in the banknote, sadly, has since been re-developed.


Standard Chartered plc

Standard Chartered Bank came into being in 1969 when the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China merged with the Standard Bank of South Africa.


The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China

James Wilson, a Scot and free-trade advocate who launched The Economist magazine back in 1843, was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1853 to establish The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China. As the name suggests, the Chartered Bank has always focused in Asia. The bank opened its first branches in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Shanghai in 1858. It expanded to Hong Kong and Singapore in 1859. In 1862, the Chartered Bank was authorized to issue Hong Kong's banknotes, a privilege it still enjoys today along with HSBC and the Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd.

The Chartered Bank appointed an agency in Jakarta in 1863, in Manila in 1872, and opened a branch in Penang, Malaysia in 1875. With trade flourishing following the 1869 opening of the Suez Canal and the telegraph cable connection between Europe and the Far East in 1871, the bank was well-positioned to provide trade financing between Asia and Europe. Cotton, indigo and tea from India, rice from Burma and China, sugar from Java, hemp from the Philippines and silk from Japan formed the bulk of trade that the Chartered Bank built its business upon.

Throughout the 1900s and 1910s, the Chartered Bank appointed agencies across Africa and the Middle East. In 1923, the bank became the first foreign bank to be granted a branch license in New York.

In 1957, the Chartered Bank acquired the Eastern Bank, expanding the bank’s branch network into the Middle East. The Eastern Bank had the distinction to be the very first bank in Bahrain (1920) and in Qatar (1950).


Standard Bank of South Africa

John Paterson founded the Standard Bank of British South Africa in 1862 in the Cape Province of South Africa. The bank was prominent in financing the diamond mines of Kimberley from 1867 onwards. It expanded to Johannesburg where gold was discovered there in 1885. The Standard Bank is said to have handled half the output of the second largest gold field in the world on its way to London.

The Standard Bank of South Africa opened a branch in Botswana in 1897. In 1911, the bank opened a branch in Kenya, followed by another one in Tanzania in 1916. By 1953, the bank had 600 offices across Southern, Central and Eastern Africa.

In 1962, the bank’s name was shortened to Standard Bank Ltd. In 1965, Standard Bank took over the Bank of West Africa (founded 1894 in London as the Bank of British West Africa), giving the bank a network of 60 branches in Nigeria, nearly 30 in Ghana and others in Sierra Leone and the Gambia.


Standard Chartered plc

As size became increasingly important to manage the risk of ever-expanding loans, the Chartered Bank and the Standard Bank decided to merge in 1969 to create the Standard and Chartered Banking Group, combining their Asian and African networks under one parent company. As part of the merger, a new holding company for the South African operations called Standard Bank Investment Corporation (now Standard Bank Group Ltd.) was created in 1969. Then in 1970, Standard & Chartered Bank floated part of Standard Bank Investment Corp. on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. By 1980, Standard Chartered’s holding in Standard Bank Investment Corp. had fallen to 58%, and this stake was to be reduced to below 50% by 1986 as required by the South African government.

Following the 1969 merger, the bank also began an ambitious expansion into the U.S. and Europe. Ironically, it was only in 1970 that the bank, which had started as the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China more than 100 years earlier, was permitted to open a representative office in Australia. In 1975, the bank's name was shortened to Standard Chartered Bank.

Between 1968 and 1973, the bank acquired Hodge Group, a British financing firm specializing in installment credit and industrial leasing. Hodge Group was renamed Chartered Trust Ltd. in 1979. In the same year, Standard Chartered took over the Union Bank of California, gaining 60 branches and becoming the No. 5 bank in the state. An interesting fact about Standard Chartered is that it's the only bank in the Falkland Islands, having opened a branch in 1984 following the end of the Falkland Islands War between Argentina and Britain two years earlier.

Throughout the 1980s, South Africa’s white minority establishment and its discriminatory policies against the black majority population came under increasing criticism and scrutiny. Great Britain, South Africa’s largest foreign investor and trading partner, faced mounting pressure to join the anti-Apartheid boycott and to sever economic and political ties with the white-controlled South African government. After years of controversies, Standard Chartered Bank in 1987 divested its remaining 39% stake in Standard Bank Investment Corp. for USD $254-million to local South African interests. Standard Chartered Bank had the dubious reputation to be the last foreign bank to leave South Africa. The sale was the largest divestment by a foreign company at the time.

In 1986, Standard Chartered became the takeover target of British banking giant Lloyds Bank Ltd., when Lloyds launched a USD $1.95-billion bid for the bank. After enlisting the help from several Asian tycoons to buy up its shares, the bank was able to defeat the unwelcome advances from Lloyds. However, loan losses from the Third-World debt crisis in the late 1980s forced the bank to sell off most of its U.S. and European operations. In 1988, subsidiary Union Bank was sold to California First Bank for USD $750-million. California First Bank was a subsidiary of the Bank of Tokyo. Then in 1990, the bank sold its Austrian, Belgian, Danish, French, German, Italian and Dutch operations to Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB).

Recent transaction(s):

• In 1999, Standard Chartered acquired 75% of Nakornthon Bank in Thailand for TBK 12.4-billion (USD $313-million). Nakornthon had 67 branches in Thailand.
• Also in 1999, Standard Chartered acquired 89% of Lebanon’s Metropolitan Bank.
• In 2000, Standard Chartered bought the Hong Kong retail banking and consumer card businesses from Chase Manhattan Bank for HKD $10.3-billion (USD $1.32-billion, GBP 825-million).
• In 2000, Standard Chartered sold its Chartered Trust leasing and auto finance business to Lloyds TSB Group for GBP 627-million.
• In 2000, Standard Chartered bought Grindlays Bank's South Asia and Middle East business from Australian and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ Banking Group) for USD $1.34-billion (GBP 848-million). The purchase included 116 branches across 13 countries in the region.
• In 2004, Standard Chartered and PT Astra International Tbk jointly acquired 63% of Indonesia’s PermataBank for USD $355-million.
• In 2005, the bank acquired Korea First Bank for KRW 3.4-trillion (USD $3.3-billion). Korea First had 400 branches and more than 3.2-million retail clients in the country.
• Also in 2005, the bank acquired a 19.99% stake in China's Bohai Bank for USD $123-million.
• In 2006, Standard Chartered and PT Astra International acquired another 26% of PermataBank for USD $193-million, bringing to total ownership to 89%.
• In 2006, the bank purchased 80.9% of Pakistan's Union Bank for PKR 24.9-billion (USD$ 416-million).
• In 2006, Standard Chartered acquired Taiwan's 7th largest private-sector bank Hsinchu International Bank for TWD $39.40-billion in cash (USD $1.19-billion, GBP 636-million). Hsinchu's 83 branches would join Standard Chartered’s three-branch network.
• In 2007, Standard Chartered bought 49% of India stockbroker UTI Securities Ltd. for GBP 18-million (USD $36-million).
• In 2007, Standard Chartered bought American Express Bank Ltd. from American Express Co. for about USD $823-million (GBP 414-million). American Express Bank served 10,000 clients and provided services to financial institutions and affluent individuals. It operated 75 offices across 47 countries. Standard Chartered said the deal would strengthen its private banking operations, double the size its USD clearing business, as well as expand into the Euro- and yen- clearing markets.
• In 2008, Standard Cahrtered sold its Standard Chartered Trustee Co. Private Ltd. and Standard Chartered Asset Management Co. Private Ltd., both based in India, to Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) for USD $205-million in cash.
• In 2008, Standard Chartered  raised its stake in Vietnam’s Asia Commercial Bank to 15%. Standard Chartered first acquired an 8.84% stake in Asia Commercial in 2005.
• In 2008, Standard Chartered agreed to acquire insolvent Taiwanese bank Asia Trust and Investment Corp. Asia Trust provided credit card services through its seven branches. Many Taiwanese banks had suffered devastating losses due to an explosion of consumer credit loans that had gone sour. As part of the agreement, Standard Chartered would receive a TWD $3.35-billion (USD $104-million) subsidy from the Taiwan government to take over Asia Trust’s operations.
• In November 2008, Standard Chartered raised GBP 1.8-billion from a rights issue.
• In December 2008, Standard Chartered raised its stake in India’s UTI Securities to 74.9%.
• In February 2009, Standard Chartered bought Cazenove Asia Ltd. from JPMorgan Cazenove.
• In August 2009, Standard Chartered announced that it was raising another GBP 1.0-billion (USD $1.7-billion) from its second rights issue with a year.
• In October 2010, Standard Chartered once again issued rights to raise GBP 3.26-billion (HKD $40.1-billion, USD $5.16-billion) in fresh capital in order to meet Basel III capital rules.
• In September 2015, Standard Chartered sold its Hong Kong Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) and Occupational Retirement Schemes Ordinance (“ORSO”) businesses to Canada's Manulife Financial. Financial terms were not disclosed but was reported as about CAD $400-million (GBP 195-million, HKD $2.35-billion) according to some media.  The businesses sold had HKD $20-billion (CAD $3.4-billion, GBP 1.66-billion) of assets under management.

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Singapore Bank Mergers & Acquisitions (Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.)

An OCBC branch in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia. With speical thanks to my friend Weekit Ong for taking this photo and giving me permission to use it here.

You can visit Weekit Ong's photostream via this link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/weekit/



Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Ltd.


 Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Ltd.

In 1912, a Chinese businessman named Lee Choon Guan established the Chinese Commercial Bank Ltd. in Singapore. In 1917, another fellow Chinese Singaporean founded the Ho Hong Bank Ltd., with branches in Singapore, as well as in neighbouring Malaya (now Malaysia) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). In 1919, the Oversea-Chinese Bank was established with operations in both Singapore and Malaya. In 1932, these three banks amalgamated to form the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., becoming the biggest bank in the then Straits Settlements.

During the 1930s, OCBC opened several branches in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. In 1949, the bank’s operations in China, which had been established in the 1920s by the predecessor banks, were significantly restricted when the Communists took over the regime.

The bank opened a London branch in 1969. In 1972, OCBC acquired a majority interest in rival Four Seas Communications Bank, which began in 1906 as the Sze Hai Tong Banking and Insurance Co. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, representative offices and branches were opened in New York, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Jakarta, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur. In 1986, OCBC acquired the remaining stake of Four Seas Communications Bank.

OCBC and Indonesia’s PT Bank NISP formed a joint-venture called PT Bank OCBC-NISP to serve the Indonesian wholesale banking market in 1995, with OCBC owning an 85% stake.


Keppel Capital Holding (Keppel TatLee Bank)

In 1959, a Chinese émigré founded the Asia Commercial Bank in Singapore. In 1990, Asia Commercial Bank was acquired by a finance company under the Keppel Group and renamed Keppel Bank. Like other Singaporean banks, Keppel sought market growth outside of the tiny city-state and in the 1990s, bought minority stakes in a Thai and a Hong Kong bank. It also opened offices in Burma, Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia.

In 1973, an Indonesian Chinese family and the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) created the Tat Lee Bank. In 1990, Tat Lee (42.5%), DBS (42.5%) and an Indonesian partner PT Bank Buana Indonesia (15%), created a joint-venture called PT Bank DBS Tat Lee Buana with offices in Jakarta and Surabaya.

Recent transaction(s):

• In 1997, Tat Lee bought out DBS’ 42.5% stake in PT Bank DBS Tat Lee Buana and renamed the Indonesian bank PT Bank Tat Lee Buana.
• Also in 1997, Keppel Bank bought 90% of Philippines’ ailing Monte de Piedad & Savings Bank with 30 branches. The bank was then renamed Keppel Bank Philippines. The Philippines unit was not part of the Keppel Bank that merged with Tat Lee Bank in 1998. In 2005, Keppel Corp. sold KBP to GE Money for SGD $43.5-million (USD $26-million, PHP 1.45-billion).
• In 1998, to protect the domestic banking sector, as well as to prevent the United Overseas Bank – OCBC duopoly, the Singapore government brokered the merger of Keppel Bank and Tat Lee Bank to form the Keppel TatLee Bank.
• In 2001, OCBC bought Keppel Capital Holdings and its main subsidiary Keppel TatLee Bank for SGD $5.21-billion (USD $2.86-billion). Keppel TatLee was Singapore’s smallest domestic bank with 34 branches in the city-state, plus three overseas branches.
• In 2004, OCBC bought a 22.5% stake in PT Bank NISP for SGD $119-million (IDR 602-billion). Ranked No. 12 in Indonesia, PT Bank NISP had 135 branches. Subsequently, OCBC's ownership in PT Bank NISP rose to 85%.
• Between late 2004 and 2005, OCBC raised its stake in PT Bank NISP from 22.5% to 72.3% for SGD $398-million (IDR 2,273-billion).
• In 2006, OCBC bought 12.2% of China’s Ningbo Commercial Bank Co. Ltd. for CNY 570-million (SGD $120-million). The small Chinese lender had 65 branches in Ningbo.
• Also in 2006, OCBC offered to buy out the 16.8% of Great Eastern Holdings Ltd. that it did not already own for SGD $1.28-billion. Great Eastern was the largest insurance group in Singapore and Malaysia with more than 2.6-million policyholders. However, when the offer closed, OCBC only raised its holding in Great Eastern by 3.7% to 86.9%.
• In 2008, OCBC raised its stake in Malaysian financial services firm PacificMas Bhd. from 28.1% to 67% for SGD $124-million.
• In October 2009, OCBC bought ING Groep’s Asian private banking operations SGD $2.04-billion (USD $1.46-billion, Eur 981-million). The business purchased managed Eur 11-billion (USD $16.4-billion) of assets in the Far East. Subqequently, the newly-acquired private bank was renamed Bank of Singapore
• In April 2014, OCBC acquired Hong Kong's Wing Hang Bank for HKD $38.7-billion (SGD $6.23-billion, USD $5.0-billion).  Wing Hang Bank was established in 1937 by the Fung family.  Wing Hang Bank and subsidiary Wing Hang Credit had a network of 80 offices in Hong Kong, Macao/ Macau and China.  Following the acquisition, Wing Hang Bank was renamed OCBC Wing Hang Bank.
• In April 2016, OCBC bought Barclay's wealth and investment management business in Singapore and Hong Kong for USD $228-million. The price was lowered from USD $320-million due to a drop in the asset under management transferred.

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Great Britain / Hong Kong Bank Mergers & Acquisitions (HSBC Holdings)

Photo: Even though HSBC is now technically a British bank, its single largest and most profitable market continues to be Hong Kong.  This is The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp.'s (HSBC's Asian unit) headquarters at No. 1, Queen's Road, Hong Kong. As of February 2010, the bank's CEO office would also be re-located to Hong Kong, but subsequent ambiguous clarifications suggested that the CEO would spend much of his time in London, and would continue to pay UK tax.


HSBC Holdings plc (滙豐控股)


The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was established by a Scotsman named Thomas Sutherland in Hong Kong in 1865. He was then working for the Peninsula and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.'s (P&O) Hong Kong office. Riding on the growing trade between Europe, India and China, The Hongkong & Shanghai blossomed from trade financing. It began operation in March 1865 in the then British Crown Colony of Hong Kong and within a month, opened a branch in Shanghai in Imperial China. Almost right from its founding, The Hongkong & Shanghai gained the privilege to issue Hong Kong's banknotes, which it still does today even after Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997.

With its well-recognized British banking expertise, The Hongkong & Shanghai soon became a principal bank in the Far East. In 1866, the bank opened a branch in Japan and acted as advisor to Japan's banking and currency policy. In 1874, the bank was appointed as the sole fiscal agent to Imperial China. During much of the early 20th century, the bank underwrote most of China's public debt issue. In 1888, the bank became the first modern bank in Thailand, and printed that country's first banknotes.

Hong Kong fell to the invading Japanese army on Christmas Day, 1941, and the bank's operations ceased. As much of Asia soon became occupided by the Japanese army, the bank shut down almost all of its branches and the head office was moved to London in 1943. During the brutal occupation, the bank's general manager and his designated successor both died in war camp in Hong Kong as prisoners of war. Following the end of World War II, the head office powers and functions quickly returned to Hong Kong in 1945.

Ironically, soon after the "liberation" of China by the Communists in 1949, all foreign banks, including The Hongkong & Shanghai, were evicted and banned from China until the 1980's, when the communist country again opened its doors to foreign tourists and investment.

In 1959, The Hongkong & Shanghai acquired the Mercantile Bank of India (a fellow British colonial bank established in 1853 in Bombay/Mumbai) as well as the British Bank of the Middle East. The British Bank of the Middle East traces its history to the 1889 establishment of the Imperial Bank of Persia. The bank changed its name to the Imperial Bank of Iran in 1935, then the British Bank of Iran and the Middle East in 1949. In 1952, the bank's operations in Iran was wound up and the bank's remaining Middle Eastern operations became the British Bank of the Middle East. 

In 1965, following a local Hong Kong economic crisis, it bought a controlling stake in Hang Seng Bank (established in 1933). Hang Seng is Hong Kong's largest local bank and is most well known for its Hang Seng Index, the benchmark index of the Hong Kong stock exchange.

In 1977, a new legislation in Saudi Arabia required all foreign banks to cede majority control their Saudi Arabian subsidiaries to local interests. To comply with this law, the British Bank of the Middle East's Saudi Arabian operations were transferred to a local company named Saudi British Bank (SABB), and The Hongkong & Shanghai's stake fell to 40%. Despite that, The Hongkong & Shanghai remained SABB's largest single shareholder, and SABB continued to use the Hong Kong bank's logo and branding.

The Hongkong & Shanghai was keen to expand outside of Asia, and in 1980, bought 51% of Marine Midland Banks, Inc. of Buffalo, New York, for USD $314-million (no relation to Britain's Midland Bank up to that point). The remaining 49% of Marine Midland was eventually bought up in 1987 for USD $800-million (HKD $6.24-billion).

Then in April 1981, anxious to create a platform for its European expansion, The Hongkong & Shanghai (by then often known simply as Hongkong Bank) launched a hostile bid for The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) valued at GBP 498-million. RBS had just a month earlier accepted a friendly GBP 334-million offer from Standard Chartered Bank. For several months, Standard Chartered and Hongkong Bank engaged in a bidding and publicity war for RBS. However, the British Monopolies and Mergers Commission ruled that it was not in the interests of Scotland to lose control of one of its biggest banks to foreign hands. Consequently Hongkong Bank withdrew its takeover offer for The Royal Bank of Scotland. Interestingly, Standard Chartered in the end also failed to win approval for the Scottish bank. No one involved at the time would foresee that Hongkong Bank would come back between 1987 and 1992 to acquire the much bigger Midland Bank; whereas RBS itself would turn into a predator in taking over National Westminster Bank in 2000.

Midland Bank plc

Midland Bank can trace its history back to 1836, when the Birmingham and Midland Bank was founded in Birmingham. In 1891, Birmingham and Midland acquired the Central Bank of London to form the London and Midland Bank. By 1918, London City and Midland Bank was the largest bank in the world in terms of deposit. In 1923, the bank’s name was simplified to Midland Bank Ltd. During the latter half of the 20th century, Midland was one of the Big Four High Street banks in Great Britain along with Barclays, Lloyds and National Westminster.

Historically, banking in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland has always been quite separate from each other -- in other words -- English banks have very few branches and minuscule market share in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and vice versa for the Scottish and Northern Irish banks. This did not mean that banks from all three "countries" could not acquire or control banks in each other's territories, though this typically involved the much more powerful English banks taking over the Scottish or Northern Irish banks rather than the other way round. (In terms of laws, business and banking, England and Wales are much more integrated.) 

Shortly after World War I, the smaller and weaker Scottish banks found themselves in challenging market conditions, and a wave of Anglo-Scottish takeovers happened. In 1919, Midland acquired Scotland's Clydesdale Bank, and just four years later followed up by buying the North of Scotland Bank. As in all such cross-border deals, they were "affiliations" instead of full mergers, and the Scottish banks retained their independent boards of directors, names, management, branding and banknote issues. (In Scotland, banknotes are issued by commercial banks and not by the Bank of England.) It was only in 1950 that Midland's two Scottish units were finally combined into the Clydesdale and North of Scotland Bank, which eventually shortened the name to Clydesdale Bank.

In 1965, Midland bought Belfast-based Northern Bank, which operated both in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Midland acquired revered stockbroker Samuel Montagu in 1974. Then in 1981, the bank bought a majority-stake in California's Crocker National Bank. The purchase proved to be a costly mistake as the U.S. went into a deep recession and loan losses mounted. Midland sold Crocker National to Wells Fargo & Co. in 1985.

Along with other major international banks, Midland had over-lent to the Third World in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1982, the bombshell fell when the Mexican government defaulted on its USD $100-billion foreign debt obligations. The Mexican debt default triggered a worldwide Third-World debt crisis. International banks suffered huge loan losses and Midland was no exception. To restore its capital ratio, Midland sold Northern Bank (in Northern Ireland and Ireland) and Clydesdale Bank (Scotland) to National Australia Bank Group in 1987 for a total of GBP 420-million.

In the same year, as Midland's share prices languished, The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank entered into a strategic agreement which saw Midland issuing shares representing a 14.9% stake to the Hong Kong bank for GBP 383-million. The 14.9% holding was then the maximum allowed for a foreign bank of a major British lender.

To get around the foreign holding limit, and also to avoid any future political complication with the return of Hong Kong's sovereignty to China in 1997, The Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation registered a parent company HSBC Holdings plc in 1991 in London, and transferred all of its subsidiaries to the U.K. parent. Merely one year later, in 1992, HSBC offered to buy the 85.1% of Midland Bank that it didn't own for GBP 3.9-billion (USD $7.1-billion) in what was then one of the largest cross-border banking mergers in the world. At the time, Lloyds Bank plc attempted briefly to wrestle Midland Bank plc from HSBC, but withdrew its offer when it became apparent that the British Monopolies and Mergers Commission would likely deny a Lloyds-Midland merger.

Recent transaction(s):

• In 1997, HSBC bought the remaining 70.1% of Argentine bank Banco Roberts that it did not already own for USD $688-million. HSBC inherited a 29.9% stake in Banco Roberts when HSBC bought Midland Bank. Midland had acquired the minority stake in Banco Roberts in 1988.
• In 1988, HSBC bought Brazil’s Banco Bamerindus do Brasil S.A. for USD $1.0-billion. Banco Bamerindus had a network of over 1,300 branches and was based in Curitiba.
• In 1999, HSBC bought Republic National Bank of New York for USD $9.8-billion.
• In 2000, HSBC bought Crédit Commercial de France for USD $10.5-billion.
• In September 2001, HSBC acquired Turkey's Demirbank for USD $350-million (GBP 248-million). Demirbank was Turkey's fifth largest private-sector bank and had 198 branches and 650,000 retail clients.
• In 2002, HSBC bought Mexico's Grupo Financiero Bital for USD$1.13-billion (GBP 706-million). Banco Bital had more than 1,400 branches in Mexico.
• Also in 2002, HSBC bought Turkish consumer finance provider Benkar Tuketici Finansmani ve Kart Hizmetleri and the Advantage Card business for up to USD $75-million.  Advantage Card had 1.5 million cardholders.
• Also in 2002, HSBC bought U.S. consumer financing company Household International for USD $14.5-billion.
• Also in 2002, HSBC bought a strategic 10% holding in China's Ping An Insurance Co. for USD $600-million.
• In 2003, HSBC bought Lloyds TSB Group's Brazilian banking business Banco Lloyds TSB S.A.-Banco Mulitplo and consumer finance unit Losango Promotora de Vendas for GBP 490-million (USD $815-million). Both businesses were merged into HSBC's Brazilian unit Banco Bamerindus.
• Also in 2003, HSBC bought Bank of Bermuda for USD $1.3-billion.
• In 2004, HSBC bought Italian Banca Intesa BCI's Canadian unit for CAD $114-million.
• Also in 2004, HSBC purchased British department store Mark & Spencer's Retail Financial Services for GBP 488-million.
• Also in 2004, HSBC acquired 19.9% of China's Bank of Communications for USD $1.75-billion.
• In 2005, HSBC purchased another 9.91% of Ping An Insurance for HKD $8.1-billion (USD $1.04-billion), bringing HSBC's holding in Ping An to 19.9%.
• Also in 2005, HSBC bought U.S. credit card issuer Metris Companies for USD $1.59-billion.
• In 2006, HSBC took over Panama's Grupo Banistmo, Central America's largest bank, for USD $1.77-billion.
• In 2007, HSBC reached an agreement with the U.S. buyout firm Lone Star to acquire Lone Star's 51% stake in Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) for USD $6.3-billion. However, Lone Star was facing criminal charges by the Korean government for having rigged the books at KEB when 64.6% of the bank was sold to Lone Star in 2004. The Korean government alleged that Lone Star took control of KEB at an artificially-reduced price. The deal with HSBC was subject to regulatory approval being obtained by April 2008. Korea Exchange Bank had 350 branches, mostly in Korea, and operated in 17 other countries.
• In September 2008, HSBC scrapped the plan to buy KEB, citing Lone Star's refusal to re-negotiate a lower price in wake of the 2008 credit crisis, as well as on-going legal uncertainties.
• Also in 2007, HSBC received NTD $47.49-billion (GBP 734-million, USD $1.46-billion) in de facto subsidies from the Taiwan government to take over the bankrupt Chinese Bank of Taiwan. Taiwan's Central Deposit Insurance Corp. took over the control of Chinese Bank of Taiwan in January 2007 when the bank became insolvent. HSBC was expected to inject USD $300-million to $400-million to raise the bank's capital level. Chinese Bank of Taiwan's 39 branches in the island nation would join HSBC's 8-branch network.
• In February 2008, HSBC agreed to sell part of its French operations, consisting of 7 regional banks, to Banque Fédérale des Banques Populaires, for Eur 2.1-billion (USD $3.17-billion). HSBC had been under heavy criticisms from its major shareholders about its botched and costly expansion in the U.S. consumer finance and sub-prime mortgage markets. The French regional banks sold by HSBC were Société Marseillaise de Crédit, Banque de Savoie, Banque Chaix, BanqueMarze, Banque Dupuy de Parseval, Banque Pelletier and Crédit Commercial du Sud-Ouest. The 7 banks had 400 branches and 2,950 employees. The buyer Banque Fédérale des Banques Populaires is the central umbrella body of Groupe Banque Populaire. Following the sale, HSBC would retain 380 branches in France.
• In 2008, HSBC bought 73.21% of India's retail brokerage IL&FS Investsmart Ltd. (Investsmart) for INR 10.23-billion (USD $242-million). HSBC bought 43.85% of Investsmart from E*Trade Financial and a 29.36% stake from India's Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd. HSBC would also make an open offer to take up up to 20% of the remaining Investsmart shares. Investsmart had 138,000 clients, 2,000 employees, 88 branches and 190 franchisee outlets in India.
• In 2008, HSBC agreed to buy 88.89% of Indonesia’s Bank Ekonomi for USD $607.5-million (GBP 351-million, Eur 453-million). The purchase would double HSBC’s presence in Indonesia to 190 branches. HSBC would also need to make a tender offer for the remaining 10.11% of Bank Ekonomi.
• In March 2009, HSBC raised GBP 12.5-billion (USD $17.7-billion, HKD $137.7-billion) of new capital through a rights issue. At the same time, the bank announced that it’s writing off its entire investment in the former Household International (now HSBC Finance) unit. HSBC bought Household International in 2002 for USD $14.5-billion. The closure of HSBC Finance (excluding the credit card business) would result in 6,100 job losses and closing down 800 offices.
• In late 2009, HSBC announced that the office of the Chief Executive Officer would be moved back to Hong Kong as of February 2010. Though for regulatory and obvious political reasons, HSBC would continue to have its headquarters in London. HSBC would be the only major bank in the world to have its CEO located in a completely different jurisdiction from its jurisdiction of registration.
• In October 2009, HSBC raised its stake in Vietnamese insurer Bao Viet to 18% from 10% for USD $105-million (GBP 63-million, HKD $814-million). HSBC had the right to further increase its holding to 25% by 2012.
• In June 2010, HSBC bought the Royal Bank of Scotland's Indian retail banking operations for an undisclosed amount. RBS India had 1.1 million clients and 31 branches. HSBC already had 2 million clients and 50 branches in India.
• In August 2010, HSBC announced that it's in talks with Anglo-South African financial services firm Old Mutual plc to acquire Old Mutual's 53% stake in Nedbank Group Ltd., plus another 17% of Nedbank from the open market, for up to USD 6.8-billion (ZAR 49.9-billion). In October, the talks ended without a deal.
• In July 2011, HSBC agreed to sell 189 New York branches (183 in upstate New York and 6 in New York City suburbs) and 6 Connecticut branches to Buffalo-based First Niagara Bank for USD $1.0-billion (GBP 609-million, HKD $7.8-billion). Most of the branches sold had originally belonged to Marine Midland Bank, which was acquired by HSBC between 1980 and 1987. HSBC was paring down its money-losing U.S. operations.
• In August 2011, HSBC sold a vast majority of its U.S. credit card operations to Capital One Financial for USD $32.7-billion (GBP 20.15-billion, HKD $254.86-billion). The amount represented a premium of USD $2.6-billion over the portfolio's book value of USD $30.4-billion. The sale was the latest retreat of HSBC in the U.S. following its disastrous purchase of Household International in 2003. HSBC would book a gain of USD $2.4-billion from the sale.
• In September 2011, HSBC sold its Canadian retail brokerage unit, HSBC InvestDirect Canada, to the National Bank of Canada for CAD $206-million (USD $206-million, GBP 130-million, HKD $1.55-billion).
• In May 2012, HSBC announced the sale of its operations in Colombia, Uruguay, Peru and Paraguay to Colombian-based Banco GNB Sudameris for USD $400-million. The operations sold included 24 branches in Peru, 20 in Colombia, 11 in Uruguay and seven in Paraguay and USD $4.4-billion of assets. However, in 2014, HSBC announced that the sale of its Uruguay operations had been terminated and it would continue to operate in that country.
• In December 2012, HSBC sold its entire 15.6% stake in China's Ping An Insurance to Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group for USD $9.38-billion (GBP 5.77-billion, HKD $72.7-billion).
• In February 2014, HSBC sold its Kazakhstan operations to Halyk Savings Bank for USD $176-million.
• In August 2015, HSBC agreed to sell HSBC Bank Brasil to Banco Bradesco for BRL 17.6-billion (USD $5.19-billion, GBP 3.33-billion). HSBC Bank Brasil had 5-million clients, 851 branches and over 4,700 ATMs, and provided banking, insurance and asset management services. The sale was part of HSBC's plan to exit markets where it could not compete effectively with local rivals.
• In May 2018,HSBC's 40%-owned Saudi British Bank (SABB) and The Royal Bank of Scotland's 40%-owned Alawwal Bank agreed to merge to become Saudi Arabia's No. 3 bank. Under the preliminary non-binding agreement, SABB would acquire Alawwal in stock for SAR 18.6-billion (USD $4.96-billion, GBP 3.68-billion).
• In May 2021, HSBC announced that it was exiting the "mass market" retail operations in the U.S. Out of its 148 American branches, which were mostly in the New York City area and in California, 80 U.S. East Coast branches along with their employees and accounts were sold to Rhode Island-based Citizens Bank. The 80-branch network transaction included 66 Metropolitan New York City area offices, nine in the Mid-Atlantic/ Washington D.C. area and five in Southeast Florida, as well as 800,000 client accounts, USD $9.2-billion in deposits and USD $2.2-billion in loans. This would be Citizens' first entrance into the New York City. At the same time, HSBC sold its ten branches in California to Los Angeles-based Cathay Bank. Cathay would gain 50,000 client accounts as well as USD $1-billion in deposits and USD $800-million of loans. Following the two sales, HSBC would close down another 35 to 40 branches, and maintain only 20 to 25 branches in the U.S. to serve high net-worth clients with at least USD $75,000 in their accounts, as well as enterprise businesses with annual revenue of no less than USD $5-million.
• In June 2021, HSBC agreed to give away its French retail banking operations to Cerberus Capital Management's My Money Group (it was actually sold for one single Euro). HSBC will transfer 244 branches, around 3,900 staff and 24 billion euros in assets in France to My Money, which will resurrect the branding Crédit Commercial de France (CCF). HSBC had bought CCF in 2000 for USD $10.5-billion. HSBC will book a USD $2.3-billion loss on the transaction.
• In August 2021, HSBC acquired French insurer AXA's Singapore operations for USD $575-million. HSBC said in a statement that the combined unit comprising HSBC Life Singapore and Axa Singapore would be the seventh-largest life insurer and the fourth-largest retail health insurer in Singapore, with over 600,000 policies in-force covering life, health and property and casualty insurance. HSBC currently ranks 10th in life insurance in Singapore, and does not have a health insurance business.
• In November 2022, HSBC agreed to sell its Canadian operations HSBC Bank Canada to the Royal Bank of Canada for CAD $13.5-billion (USD $10.1-billion) in cash. HSBC Canada had CAD $134-billion of assets and served its 770,000 retail clients through a 130-branch network from coast to coast and 4,200 employees. HSBC Bank Canada was strong in corporate banking where commercial clients relied on HSBC's expansive global operations, as well as in retail banking in the affluent Hong Kong and Chinese expat communities in Canada.
• On 2023-03-13, the first business day following the collapse of California's Silicon Valley Bank over the weekend, HSBC took over Silicon Valley Bank UK (SVB UK) Ltd. for GBP 1 (USD $1.21) in a deal facilitated by the Bank of England to prevent SVB UK from entering insolvency and disrupting the banking service of its UK tech start-up clients. SVB UK had had loans of around GBP 5.5-billion and deposits of around GBP 6.7-billion. For the financial year ending 31 December 2022, SVB UK recorded a profit before tax of GBP 88-million. SVB UK’s tangible equity is expected to be around GBP 1.4-billion
• In October 2023, HSBC agreed to acquire Citigroup's retail wealth management portfolio in mainland China. The portfolio comprised of USD $3.6-billion in assets and deposits, and the associated wealth customer accounts across 11 major cities. The purchase excluded credit cards, mortgages and other loans of Citi China.
• In February 2024, HSBC wrote down the value of its 19% holdings in China's Bank of Communications by USD $3.0-billion to comply with new accounting rules that came into effect.
• Also in February 2024, HSBC received approval from Russian president Vladimir Putin to sell its Russia unit to Expobank. HSBC exited the retail banking business in Russia back in 2011, and had only served corporate clients in Russia since then.
• In April 2024, HSBC agreed to sell its Argentina operations to Grupo Financiero Galicia for USD $550-million. HSBC Argentina served around one million customers through its 100-plus branch network and 3,100 employees.  HSBC will book a USD $1-billion pre-tax loss on the disposal.
• In late 2024, HSBC announced that it would re-organize its operational structure. The bank's existing three main divisions: commercial banking, global banking and markets, and wealth and personal banking would be re-structured into four divisions based partly by geography. The four new divisions would be: Hong Kong (in charge of HSBC's Hong Kong, Asia and Middle East personal banking and commercial banking); UK (in charge of UK's personal banking and commercial banking); Corporate & Institutional Banking (global wholesale banking and cross-border transaction banking, and commercial banking outside of Hong Kong and UK); International Wealth & Premier Banking (global private banking, asset management, insurance and Premier banking outside of  Hong Kong and UK).
• In late 2025, HSBC's Hong Kong unit The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation announced that it was offering HKD $106.1-billion (USD $13.63-billion) to buy out the 36.5% of Hong Kong's Hang Seng Bank that it didn't already own. HSBC rescued Hang Seng Bank back in 1965 during a liquidity crisis at the latter. Hang Seng Bank subsequently survived and became one of Hong Kong's largest banks. At the time of announcement, Hang Seng bank had almost 4-million clients in Hong Kong and China, with 250 branches. In recent years though, Hang Seng's loan losses soared due to a prolonged slump in Hong Kong and China's real estate market. The HSBC offer valued the entirety of Hang Seng at HKD $290-billion (USD $37.2-billion). HSBC said it would retain Hang Seng Bank's brand and products.

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