According to the Sunday Times, the company is in the process of reviving the old Midland Bank in a bid to create a new force in retail banking.
The latest move may be considered as part of the review by HSBC to shift its headquarters to Asia owing to increasing costs as well as tedious regulations in the UK and could expedite its exit from the country.
Recently, the company announced that it plans to have Birmingham as base for its retail bank.
As part of an ongoing review, HSBC is planning whether to move its headquarters out of the UK and back to Hong Kong, its former home.
A new law introduced by the UK compelling banks to separate their domestic retail operations by the year 2019 prompted HSBC to take the spin-off decision.
The Standard cited the newspaper saying that the directors of HSBC are considering the future of its retail operations as a so-called ‘ring-fencing’ scheme.
Brought in following the financial crisis, the scheme makes it mandatory for banks to separate retail operations.
Claimed to be the world’s third largest bank by assets, UK’s multinational banking and financial services company HSBC was founded in London in 1991 by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation to act as a new group holding company.
With around 6,600 offices in 80 countries and territories across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America, HSBC is organized within four business groups.
The business groups include commercial banking; global banking and markets (investment banking); retail banking and wealth management; and global private banking.
Image: The HSBC main building in Hong Kong. Photo: courtesy of WiNG
