HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021.[6] In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 trillion in assets under custody (AUC) and $4.9 trillion in assets under administration (AUA), respectively.[4] HSBC traces its origin to a hong in British Hong Kong, and its present form was established in London by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation to act as a new group holding company in 1991;[7][8] its name derives from that company’s initials.[9] The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation opened branches in Shanghai in 1865[1] and was first formally incorporated in 1866.[10]
HSBC has offices in 64 countries and territories across Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America, serving around 40 million customers.[11] As of 2022, it was ranked no. 38 in the world in the Forbes rankings of large companies ranked by sales, profits, assets, and market value.[12]
HSBC is organised within three business groups: Commercial Banking, Global Banking and Markets, and Wealth and Personal Banking.[13][14] In 2020, the bank announced that it would consolidate its Retail Banking & Wealth Management arm with Global Private Banking, to form Wealth & Personal Banking.[15]
HSBC has a dual[16] primary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the Hang Seng Index and the FTSE 100 Index. It has secondary listings on the New York Stock Exchange, and the Bermuda Stock Exchange.
HSBC has had a number of controversies and the bank has been repeatedly fined for money laundering (sometimes in relation with criminal organizations such as the Sinaloa cartel)[17] or setting up large scale tax avoidance schemes.