HSBC

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HSBC Holdings plc (for its acronym in English of The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, in traditional Chinese, 匯豐控股有限公司; Simplified Chinese, 汇丰控股有限公司; pinyin, Huìfēng kònggǔ yǒuxiàn gōngsī), better known as HSBC, is a British multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the eighth largest bank in the world by assets and the second in Europe, behind BNP Paribas.

Throughout its history, the courts of numerous countries have found HSBC guilty of money laundering, violation of laws regulating financial systems and having provided protection to organized crime groups, tax evaders, and cartels dedicated to drug trafficking, which has led the bank to pay multimillion-dollar fines. For example, in 2015 the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists brought to light a gigantic tax evasion scheme —dubbed Swiss Leaks— allegedly operated by the Swiss private banking subsidiary of HSBC that would have evaded between November 2006 and March 2007 (barely 5 months) 180,600 million euros from 100,000 clients and 20,000 shell companies; the investigation was based on the data provided by the Falciani list. On the other hand, in 2012, the United States condemned the bank for laundering 881 million dollars from drug trafficking and in 2014 the Brussels prosecutor accused the Swiss subsidiary of HSBC of fraud tax, money laundering and constituting a criminal organization.

History

It was founded in London in 1991 as a holding company, although its origins can be traced back to The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, founded in 1865 in Hong Kong, then a British colony. Its name, HSBC, reveals its origins in Hong Kong. In this way, the company considers as its "domestic markets" both to the United Kingdom and to the city of Hong Kong.

HSBC has around 6,600 offices in some 80 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas; It has, according to the bank itself, more than 60 million customers and in 2015 it was, according to Forbes magazine, the fourteenth largest publicly traded private company in the world. It is organized into four business segments: commercial banking, global banking (equivalent to investment banking), wealth management and global private investment banking.

HSBC is simultaneously listed on the main index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange, specifically the Hang Seng and FTSE 100 indices, respectively. The company is among the companies with the largest market capitalization of those that make up the stock indices, with a valuation of hundreds of billions of dollars (about 170 billion in April 2015).

Business Areas

HSBC divides its businesses into four distinct groups:

Personal finance: HSBC provides financial services to more than 125 million customers around the world. These services include current accounts, savings accounts, mortgages, insurance, credit cards, loans, pensions and investments.

Commercial banking: The bank has as clients almost 2.5 million small and medium-sized enterprises.

Corporate, investment banks and markets: In this area of business the bank provides financial services to corporate and institutional customers referring to global markets, corporate and institutional banking, global banking transactions and global investment banking.

Private banking.

Formula 1

HSBC sponsored Stewart Grand Prix of Formula 1 from 1997 to 1999, and from 2000 to 2004, it sponsored Jaguar Racing due to Jaguar Racing buying Stewart Grand Prix.

Disputes

Money laundering in criminal organizations

In 2012, a 340-page report by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations revealed that HSBC had laundered money for years from Mexican cartels and other criminal organizations from Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh. It also dodged US trade sanctions against Cuba, Sudan, Miami, Iran and North Korea. There are even several civil lawsuits alleging that the financial institution, through the Al Rajhi bank, channeled cash to two of the terrorists who hijacked the planes of the 9/11 attacks. The British bank acknowledged its mistakes, agreeing to pay a $1.92 billion fine to avoid charges in the criminal investigation.

In 2014, the Brussels public prosecutor's office accused the Swiss subsidiary of HSBC of tax fraud, money laundering, criminal organization, and the illegal exercise of financial intermediation.

Tax Evasion

Main article: Falciani list and Swiss Leaks

Swiss Leaks is the name of a journalistic investigation of a gigantic tax evasion scheme allegedly operated with the knowledge and consent of HSBC through its Swiss subsidiary, HSBC Private Bank (Suisse)..

The Falciani list is a list containing the names of some 130,000 potential tax evaders with undeclared accounts at HSBC's hdl in Geneva, Switzerland. It receives the name "Falciani" from Hervé Falciani, a computer engineer, former bank worker, who leaked it from his workplace.

Environmental responsibility

The bank's asset management arm has ownership stakes in companies planning to build 73 coal-fired power plants in 11 countries in Africa and Asia. Once operational, these plants would emit more air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter than all coal-fired power plants in the European Union and the United Kingdom combined in 2019.