The FT has said:
The US is emerging as a serious alternative to Hong Kong as the possible headquarters for HSBC, as Europe's biggest bank by assets considers shifting its base out of the UK.
Pull the other one: more regulation, more risk of fines and increased chance of prosecutions. I don't think anyone at HSBC is really thinking of any such move, any more than I think a single person in the bank really expects they will go to Hong Kong, whether or not China is David Cameron's best new friend.
I think HSBC is her to stay. A bit of extra tax is far better news than facing a US regulatory regime for a bank that has had so many issues.
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How much was the fine for money laundering? It would keep the lights burning for a long time
Delaware with linkage to the British Virgin Isles?
One additional pointer: unless the EU and the US resolve their differences over data protection in the next couple of months, the withdrawal of the Safe Harbour agreement would kill this stone dead.
Good bye and good riddance!
“If” they, sorry that should be “when”, they require a bail out will the US be picking up the tab?
HSBC is subject to a deferred prosecution agreement, as well as the intensive and extended scrutiny imposed in the wake of a successful money-laundering prosecution in New York.
I do not doubt that their progress is satisfactory – Indeed, I am sure that their conduct is exemplary – but it is unlikely that HSBC will transfer their operations wholesale into that regulatory environment until they have repaired their working relationship with the authorities.
All this speculation needs a sharp dose of reality: operating a banking subsidiary in the USA requires a ring-fenced legal entity that *is*, for all legal purposes, an independent bank with it’s own Head Office in America.
If HSBC – or any other bank in London – wanted to move to New York they would already be transferring staff and operations, without any fanfare.