HSBC Holdings plc History

Company Perspectives:

The HSBC Group's approach is highly distinctive. At its core around the world are domestic commercial banking and financial services which fund themselves locally and do business locally. Highly efficient technology links these operations to deliver a wide range of international products, as well as services, adapted to local customers' needs. This structure allows the Group to serve a broad international customer base, while limiting its currency risk in any given location. Customers range from individual depositors and small local businesses to the world's largest corporations. The geographical distribution of assets reflects the HSBC Group's international approach. The largest concentration of the Group's assets remains in the Asia-Pacific region, including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR). Asia-Pacific has consistently been the Group's most profitable area.

Company History:

A significant force in international banking, HSBC Holdings plc (also referred to as the HSBC Group) operates in some 79 countries and offers a comprehensive financial service encompassing not only commercial and merchant banking but also capital markets, consumer finance, securities, investments, and insurance. The HSBC Group is increasingly international in nature, despite the group still being centered around the bank from which it evolved (and from which it gained its acronymic name)--The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, the top bank in Hong Kong, known colloquially as HongkongBank. About 30 percent of HSBC's asset base is in Hong Kong, 35 percent in the United Kingdom, 19 percent in the Americas, 12.5 percent in the Asia-Pacific region (not including Hong Kong), and 3.5 percent in continental Europe.

Founding of HongkongBank

The history of HSBC begins with the founding of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company, Ltd. in 1865. In the early 1860s, Hong Kong's financial needs were served by European trading houses called "hongs." This system proved increasingly inadequate as the colony's bustling trade&mdash′imarily in tea, silk, and opium--burgeoned. By 1864 the first proper banks had been established, but as these were based in London or India and controlled from abroad, there was a growing feeling that a local bank was needed in the colony.

Dissatisfaction led to action when it was discovered that a group of Bombay financiers intended to set up a "Bank of China" in Hong Kong, and that this bank, chartered in London, was to offer only a small proportion of its shares to China coast businesses. Thomas Sutherland, the Hong Kong Superintendent of the Peninsula and Orient Steam Navigation Company, proposed the foundation of a new bank modeled on "sound Scottish banking principles." The proposal was promptly taken up by others of the Hong Kong business community; within days a provisional committee had established a banking cooperative capitalized at HK$5 million. The move effectively preempted the proposed "Bank of China," whose representative, when he arrived later in Hong Kong, could find no market for his shares.

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company Limited opened on March 3, 1865, with a second branch inaugurated in Shanghai on April 3. A London office was opened later in the year. Members of the cooperative included American, German, Scandinavian, and Parsee Indian merchant houses, as well as representatives from the Bombay-based David Sassoon & Company and Hong Kong-based Dent & Company. The largest companies in Hong Kong, Jardine Matheson and the American firm Russell & Company, were not represented. The highly favorable response to the bank by foreign interests and compradores (native businessmen who acted as intermediaries with the Chinese community), however, led both to reconsider and join.

An international financial crisis in 1865-66 could have destroyed the bank. Instead, with financial support from its members, the bank took over the operations of failed competitors and hired their staff. Dent, meanwhile, the dominant Hong Kong member of the group, went bankrupt. However, instead of hurting the cooperative, Dent's failure allowed broader representation by more diverse local interests.

Initially, the bank was established under the local Companies Ordinance as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company Limited. Under the colonial law of the time, a bank had to incorporate either under a royal charter in compliance with the Colonial Banking Regulations or else according to British banking legislation. However, the bank's founders objected to these options, as they had particularly designed their enterprise as a local concern. Eventually a deal was struck with the Treasury whereby the bank (renamed The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation), under a unique ordinance, could retain Hong Kong headquarters while complying with the Colonial Banking Regulations.

Expanded Rapidly in the Late 19th Century

HongkongBank expanded rapidly throughout the 19th century. By 1900, it had branches in Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, and the countries now known as Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. In some Asian cities, HongkongBank was the first to usher in principles of modern Western banking and was indeed Thailand's very first bank, printing that country's first bank notes. In the United States and Europe, HongkongBank branches opened in San Francisco in 1875, New York in 1880, Lyons in 1881, and Hamburg in 1889. Except in New York, where a Canadian bank already operated, HongkongBank was the first foreign bank in each of these cities.

In Hong Kong, operations experienced a setback in the 1870s when the bank made some unwise investments in local Hong Kong industry--its reserves fell from HK$1 million to HK$100,000--but the company soon regained its footing under the leadership of a new chief manager, Thomas Jackson, who brought the bank back to a renewed emphasis on its field of expertise, trade finance. By the end of Jackson's reign, in 1902, HongkongBank's paid-up capital stood at HK$10 million, and its published reserves at HK$14.25 million, with additional estimated inner reserves of HK$10 million.

The bank had, however, developed another lucrative role--that of banker to governments. By the 1880s, HongkongBank was operating in this capacity to the government of Hong Kong and had acquired the Treasury Chest (the British government's military and foreign service) business for China and Japan. In addition, the HongkongBank issued bank notes for Hong Kong and for the Straits Settlements (Singapore and Penang). Since these notes were not, at the time, legal tender, their popularity reflected the public's trust in HongkongBank. Through a powerful compradore in China, the bank established contacts with local officials in Tianjin and Beijing. The bank was later asked to issue a public loan on behalf of the Chinese government, and directed several more in ensuing years. While some of these loans financed China's war against Japan (1894-95) and the enforcement of peace during internal conflicts such as the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, the bulk were used for infrastructural projects such as railroads, coal mines, and shipping lines.

The bank was able to develop a very favorable rapport with the government and business interests in China mainly because it had a widespread presence in China and was incorporated in Hong Kong. By 1910 it was the favored intermediary of the multinational China Consortium, a result of the demonstrated effectiveness of the Bank's London manager, Sir Charles Addis.

World Wars Led to Numerous Difficulties

World War I deeply divided the bank, still well represented by both Germans and Britons. The German members of its board, identified in the press as "hostile interests," eventually resigned, marking a more or less permanent end to German participation in the company. Still, the bank's Hamburg office remained open for the duration of the war.

The high price of silver after the war led the bank to make a rights issue to finance an expansion. Chief Manager A.G. Stephen presided over the construction of new facilities in Hankow, Bangkok, Manila, and especially Shanghai, where a new office was opened in 1923. An office opened in Vladivostok in 1918 but was forced to close in 1924, when Russian revolutionary forces completed their consolidation of control over Siberia.

The optimism of the early 1920s crashed after 1929 and continued to deteriorate through the 1930s, as Japanese interests moved into China, this time supported by Japanese guns. At first, the Japanese domination of China was limited to the rich hinterlands of Manchuria and consisted mainly of the commercial exploitation of resources. While the bank was permitted to establish offices in the Manchurian cities of Dairen, Mukden, and Harbin, its operations were limited only to foreign trade. Meanwhile, in the rest of China, the bank experienced new competition from an increasingly sophisticated Chinese banking community.

At the same time, the bank was losing business from the Philippine government and was discriminated against in Indonesia and Vietnam by Dutch and French colonial authorities. Despite generous lending and other support tactics for customers involved in rubber and other volatile commodities trades, bank profits continued to deteriorate. In many cases, competitors complained that the bank's extraordinary care "exceeded the limits of prudent lending." The bank was, however, founded on cooperative precepts, and continued to operate on that basis. Still, it was the shareholders who suffered; shareholder's funds fell from £9.1 million in 1918 to £8.6 million in 1940.

The number of Hong Kong dollars in circulation, 80 percent of which were printed by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, increased from HK$50 million in 1927 to HK$200 million in 1940. In effect, the bank backed HK$160 million of the colony's currency--a dangerous exposure to the local economy, despite transferring the currency from a silver to sterling standard. The bank became involved in an even more unmanageable currency-stabilization effort in Shanghai, from which it eventually had to bow out, turning the scheme over to a government board.

The Japanese occupation of China, meanwhile, had become extremely brutal. Terror bombings, invasion, and a Japanese military riot in Nanking stifled commerce in China and isolated Hong Kong from its Chinese hinterland. Sensing imminent danger, the bank's chief manager, Vandeleur Grayburn, authorized the immediate transfer of silver reserves into sterling assets in London. On December 8, 1940, shortly after completing the transfer, Japanese troops stormed through Hong Kong's New Territories, and on Christmas won a surrender.

Bank staff in Manchuria, Japan, and Indochina were repatriated, and those in Burma and Singapore escaped to India. Employees in China, particularly Foochow, managed to reach Chungking, where the bank opened a formal office in 1943. The staff in Hong Kong were much less fortunate; most of them who were of European descent were imprisoned.

Under prearranged orders from Grayburn, the bank's London manager, Arthur Morse, assumed managerial control of the bank. Morse transferred the dollar-denominated assets located in Hong Kong to London, fearing that if the Japanese gained control of them, the assets would be frozen by the U.S. government. In light of the circumstances--the bank's board was interned in Hong Kong--Morse was named both chief manager and chairman. During the occupation, Japanese authorities forced the bank to issue additional currency in order to support the local economy. Grayburn and his designated successor, D.C. Edmonston, meanwhile, died in prison.

The war ended so suddenly in August 1945 that Hong Kong remained occupied when Japan surrendered. With colonial authorities back in control, the bank began the difficult and costly task of rebuilding. The amortization of banknotes issued under the occupation cost HK$16 million, and new legislation only permitted the bank to collect debts from enemy interests in depreciated occupation currencies.

Postwar Recovery

Despite its weakened condition, the bank played a major role in the reconstruction of Hong Kong, a task Morse began planning well before the war ended. All the company's branches were reopened--with the exception of Hamburg which, again, had remained open during the war--including those in Japan. By 1947, however, new problems arose in China, where the wartime alliance between Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists and Mao Tse-tung's communists had degenerated into a civil war. The immediate effects were severe inflation and increasing public disorder.

By October 1949 the communists had gained control of the mainland and the nationalists had fled to Taiwan. When an initial plea by the communists for reconstruction in cooperation with capitalists was suddenly reversed in 1950, industrialists fled China--especially Shanghai--for Hong Kong. The bank maintained offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, and Shantou until 1955, when all but the Shanghai branch were closed. The Chinese, it seemed, preferred to do all their business through Hong Kong.

After the war, the British government practiced a "non-extractive" economic policy in Hong Kong which, coupled with the entrepreneurial talent of industrialists transplanted from Shanghai and a labor force swelled by thousands of mainland refugees, created a powerful economic base. The bank financed hundreds of new ventures that helped the colony achieve unprecedented export-led growth. The growth of the textile industry in Hong Kong, however, led the bank to fear that it had become overexposed to that one industry.

International Expansion, 1950s Through 1970s

Under Michael Turner, the HongkongBank adopted a new strategy of expansion using subsidiaries during the mid-1950s. Initially made necessary by American banking legislation, the subsidiary form of organization was first used in 1955 to establish a branch in California--one step toward reducing its dependence on Hong Kong.

Because Britain relinquished much of its empire after the war, British companies were forced to rationalize, by merger, acquisition, or nationalization. Indeed, many went bankrupt. Two such companies, the Mercantile Bank (formerly the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China) and the British Bank of the Middle East (known as BBME, formerly the Imperial Bank of Persia), were purchased by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in 1959. The addition of the Mercantile Bank, with an extensive branch network in India, and the BBME, strongly represented in the Persian Gulf, made the HongkongBank the largest foreign bank in most of the countries from the Far East to southwest Asia.

Having reduced its exposure to Hong Kong, the bank moved next to diversify operationally. In 1960 it created Wayfoong, a consumer financing group whose name translates loosely as "focus of wealth."

A banking crisis in Hong Kong in 1964 led to a serious run on a competitor, the Hang Seng Bank. As the primary financial institution in Hong Kong and de facto central bank, the HongkongBank, while under no statutory duty to do so, acquired a majority interest in Hang Seng in 1965. Hang Seng subsequently recovered, and was the second largest bank incorporated in Hong Kong into the 1990s.

The HongkongBank's expansion through subsidiaries began in earnest with the creation in 1972 of Wardley Ltd., a merchant bank, and an insurance company called Carlingford. The bank also made numerous other investments--in Cathay Pacific Airways, the World-Wide shipping group, and the South China Morning Post. All these investments proved highly profitable in light of Hong Kong's rapid economic growth. In addition, the BBME benefited greatly from the newly prosperous oil-based economies in the Persian Gulf. In 1978, however, BBME branches in Saudi Arabia were taken over by the Saudi British Bank, a Saudi-controlled bank in which BBME retained management control, but only 40 percent ownership.

North American Expansion Marked the 1980s

Under the leadership of Michael Sandberg, the HongkongBank reexamined its position in America as part of a wider strategy to gain greater representation in the major Western economies. The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank of California was sold and the bank purchased a 51 percent share of Marine Midland Bank, a Buffalo, New York-based bank holding company, in 1980. The HongkongBank bought the outstanding shares of Marine Midland in 1987. This acquisition inspired substantial debate in the U.S. Congress about whether banking laws should be strengthened to prevent foreign companies from gaining control over American banks.

The bank expanded in several ways during 1980. In China, the Shanghai branch was expanded and a representative office was established in Beijing. In addition, the BBME relocated from London to Hong Kong, and the bank gained control of Concord International, a leasing and finance group, and Anthony Gibbs, a British merchant bank. The following year, a Canadian subsidiary, the Hongkong Bank of Canada, was established in Vancouver. In 1986 the Hongkong Bank of Canada acquired the business of the Bank of British Columbia, bringing the number of branches across Canada to 61.

A bidding war over the Royal Bank of Scotland Group between the HongkongBank and Standard & Chartered (issuer of Hong Kong's other currency) was halted in 1981 by the British Monopolies & Mergers Commission, which ruled against both bids. Meanwhile, the bank succeeded in establishing a presence in Africa in 1981 through the acquisition of a controlling interest in Equator Bank by its merchant bank subsidiary Wardley; in Cyprus in 1982, also primarily through Wardley; and in Australia in 1985, when it established HongkongBank of Australia. Back in North America, HongkongBank entered into a strategic alliance with California-based Wells Fargo Bank in 1989. Also that year, HongkongBank was registered under the Hong Kong Companies Ordinance, at which time it adopted the name The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.

HongkongBank's expansionist policies were not always successful. Its acquisition of Marine Midland, said initially to have boosted the bank's assets from HK$125.3 billion to HK$243 billion, soon proved a debacle. Ill-advised forays into real estate and Latin American lending led to significant losses, prompting the parent company in 1991 to completely overhaul its subsidiary--at a purported cost of US$1.8 billion. Other high-profile failures of the 1980s included the bank's financing of an Australian tycoon, Alan Bond, who went bankrupt.

Formation of HSBC Holdings, Acquisition of Midland Bank (U.K.) and the Early 1990s

In 1984 Great Britain and the People's Republic of China signed a historic agreement, slating for July 1, 1997, the return of Hong Kong to Chinese control, and providing added impetus to HongkongBank's overseas expansion. Keen to beef up its presence in Europe, the bank acquired James Capel, a leading U.K. securities firm, in 1986. Of still greater importance was the beginning in December 1987 of an association between HongkongBank and Midland Bank, one of four major British clearing banks. In December 1987 HongkongBank made the friendly acquisition of 14.9 percent of Midland's stock, agreeing not to increase its stake in Midland until the expiration of a three-year agreement in December 1990. Staking its future in Europe to that of Midland, HongkongBank transferred control of its branches on the European continent to Midland and in turn acquired Midland's branches in Canada and South Korea. In 1990 Hongkong Bank of Canada expanded still further through the purchase of Lloyds Bank Canada, becoming the seventh largest bank in Canada by the early 1990s.

HongkongBank and Midland entered into merger talks in 1990, but the talks broke off late in the year because of what were termed "financial difficulties." Nevertheless, HongkongBank held onto its stake in Midland following the expiration of the three-year agreement.

Like many Hong Kong-based companies facing the uncertainties of 1997, HongkongBank made some major organizational changes well before the handover. In 1991 it created a new holding company, HSBC Holdings plc, making HongkongBank a subsidiary of the U.K.-incorporated but Hong Kong-based HSBC Holdings. HSBC stock was set up on both the London and Hong Kong markets, showing the importance Hongkong placed on Europe (and London) for its future. For HongkongBank, the establishment of a new holding company relieved it of management responsibility for the group's more than 500 subsidiaries in 50 countries. The bank thus could focus primarily on the Asia-Pacific region it knew so well.

HSBC completed the long-anticipated takeover of Midland in 1992, gaining full control of what became its flagship in Europe. HSBC made an initial friendly offer in March for Midland. The following month Lloyds stepped in with a larger, hostile offer. HSBC soon put an end to the takeover battle with a 480p per share offer in June, prompting Lloyds to bow out. HSBC ended up paying £3.9 billion (US$7.2 billion) to acquire Midland. As a condition of the acquisition, HSBC was required by the regulatory Bank of England to move its main office to London, which it did in January 1993. The headquarters of HongkongBank remained in Hong Kong.

The acquisition of Midland was a coup, providing HSBC with the significant presence in Europe it had previously lacked. Variously described as a merger and a takeover, the amalgamation virtually doubled HSBC's assets (from £86 billion to £170 billion) and workforce. The venerable Midland, the U.K.'s third largest bank, was not performing to standard at that time, being the least profitable of Britain's "big four" banks. Nevertheless, the financial health and the international experience of the parent company began attracting larger corporate customers to Midland. In addition, many individuals were subsequently won over by the telephone banking service, First Direct, introduced by Midland in 1989 and strongly backed by HSBC. HSBC's lead in technology--used, for example, to automate credit decisions and limit staff expenditure--also played a part in Midland's recovery.

Although under the HSBC umbrella structure individual subsidiaries largely acted autonomously, the company also moved to coordinate some operations. Soon after the takeover of Midland, HSBC integrated its treasury operations in London, New York, and Tokyo and established common technological standards. Also in 1992 HSBC opened a trading room in London for the dealing business of Midland, James Capel, and HSBC Greenwell. This became the largest treasury trading operation in Europe. That year also saw the establishment of the HSBC Investment Banking Group, which coordinated the merchant banking, securities, and asset management business (HSBC Asset Management) of the entire HSBC Group.

HongkongBank, which had long acted as a quasi-central bank, was relieved of some of these unofficial duties in 1992, when the Hong Kong Monetary Authority was established. The following year HongkongBank divested its holding in Cathay Pacific Airways. In 1994 it became the first foreign bank to incorporate locally in Malaysia through the establishment of Hongkong Bank Malaysia Berhad. In the mid-1990s the bank greatly expanded its personal banking business through the opening or upgrading of personal banking units in Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mauritius, New Zealand, the Philippines, Saipan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand. The bank also expanded its presence in China during this period, maintaining good relations with the Chinese government--which was extremely important as 1997 approached.

HSBC Holdings continued to expand in the mid-1990s under the leadership of John Bond, appointed chief executive in January 1993 (and group chairman in June 1998). In 1995 HSBC and Wells Fargo established Wells Fargo HSBC Trade Bank in California, a joint venture (40 percent owned by HSBC) providing trade finance and international banking services in the United States. Marine Midland was bolstered in 1996 with the acquisition of Rochester, New York-based First Federal Savings and Loan Association for US$620 million. Latin America was the subject of several 1997 transactions: the purchase of a 10 percent stake in Banco del Sur del Peru; the founding of a new subsidiary in Brazil, Banco HSBC Bamerindus S.A., which took over assets of Banco Bamerindus do Brasil; the increase in investment in Banco Santiago in Chile to 6.99 percent; the acquisition of Roberts S.A. de Inversiones of Argentina (renamed HSBC Roberts S.A. de Inversiones); and the purchase of a 19.9 percent stake in Grupo Financiero Serfin of Mexico.

Although HSBC seemed to suffer no ill effects from the handover of Hong Kong to Chinese control on July 1, 1997, it did feel the effects of the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s. The group was particularly hard hit in troubled Indonesia, where it had to set aside about US$2.5 billion in provisions for bad loans. Nevertheless, its earlier moves into Europe and the Americas paid off handsomely, as higher profits in these regions helped offset weaker results in Asia. Meantime, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, in an attempt to thwart currency speculators, made a significant intervention in the Hong Kong stock market in August 1998, purchasing large stakes in several prominent companies. The government of Hong Kong thereby became HSBC Holdings' single largest shareholder, with an 8.9 percent stake.

In October 1998 HSBC announced that it had signed a 999-year lease for a new 1.1 million square foot headquarters building at Canary Wharf in London, scheduled for completion by early 2002. The following month HSBC said that it would unify the HSBC Group under the HSBC name and logo, thereby establishing a more global corporate identity. Among the units whose marketing names would change to HSBC were Banco HSBC Bamerindus, the British Bank of the Middle East, Hongkong Bank Malaysia, Hongkong Bank of Australia, Hongkong Bank of Canada, HSBC Banco Roberts, Marine Midland, Midland Bank, HSBC Equator Bank, HSBC Investment Banking, and even the flagship HongkongBank itself. Eventually the legal names of many HSBC Group subsidiaries would also be changed. In a press release, Bond said: "We want the HSBC brand to be known in every country and in every sector in which we operate as synonymous with integrity, trust, and excellent customer service. I am confident that a unified brand and the strong recognition it will bring for HSBC's exceptional strengths is an important step forward as we work to maximise shareholder value." The implementation of this significant change was sure to require much of HSBC's attention at the turn of the century.

Principal Subsidiaries: Commercial Banking: Banco HSBC Bamerindus S.A. (Brazil); British Arab Commercial Bank Limited; The British Bank of the Middle East (Channel Islands); Egyptian British Bank S.A.E. (Egypt); Hang Seng Bank Limited (Hong Kong; 62.1%); The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (Hong Kong); Hongkong Bank Malaysia Berhad; Hongkong Bank of Australia Limited; Hongkong Bank of Canada; HSBC Banco Roberts S.A. (Argentina; 99.85%); Marine Midland Bank (U.S.A.); Midland Bank plc; The Saudi British Bank (Saudi Arabia); Wells Fargo HSBC Trade Bank, N.A. (U.S.A.). Investment Banking: Guyerzeller Bank AG (Switzerland; 71%); HSBC Asset Management Americas Inc. (U.S.A.); HSBC Asset Management Europe Limited; HSBC Asset Management Hong Kong Limited; HSBC Equator Bank plc; HSBC International Trustee Limited (Channel Islands); HSBC Investment Bank Asia Limited (Hong Kong); HSBC Investment Bank plc; HSBC Private Bank (Jersey) Limited (Channel Islands); HSBC Private Equity Europe Limited; HSBC Securities Asia Limited (Hong Kong); HSBC Securities Japan Limited; HSBC Trustee (Hong Kong) Limited; HSBC Trustee (Jersey) Limited (Channel Islands); HSBC Unit Trust Management Limited; Midland Bank Trust Company Limited; Midland Bank Trustee (Jersey) Limited (Channel Islands); Trinkaus & Burkhardt KGaA (Germany; 73%); Wardley Financial Services Limited (Hong Kong). Capital Markets: HSBC Greenwell; HSBC Securities, Inc. (U.S.A.). Finance: Forward Trust Group Limited; HSBC Forfaiting Asia Pte Limited (Singapore); HSBC International Trade Finance Limited; Mortgage And Finance Berhad (Brunei Darussalam); Wayfoong Credit Limited (Hong Kong); Wayfoong Finance Limited (Hong Kong); Wayfoong Mortgage And Finance (Singapore) Limited. Insurance, Retirement Benefits, Actuarial and Personal Financial Services: Hang Seng Life Limited (Hong Kong); HSBC Gibbs Limited; HSBC Gibbs Personal Insurances Limited; HSBC Insurance (Asia-Pacific) Holdings Limited (Hong Kong); HSBC Insurance Holdings Limited; La Buenos Aires Compañia Argentina de Seguros S.A. (Argentina); Midland Life Limited. Bullion Dealing and Commodity/Brokerage Services: Wardley Broking Services Private Limited (Singapore). Property: Wayfoong Property Limited. Shipping Services: HSBC Shipbrokers Limited.

Further Reading:

• Blanden, Michael, "After the Dust of Battle," Banker, August 1992, p. 36.
• Chambers, Gillian, Hang Seng: The Evergrowing Bank, Hong Kong: Hang Seng Bank, 1991.
• Collis, Maurice, Wayfoong: The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, London: Faber and Faber, 1965.
• "An Empire at Risk," Economist, September 7, 1996, pp. 71-72.
• Engardio, Pete, "Global Banker," Business Week, May 24, 1993, pp. 42-46.
• Engardio, Pete, and Paula Dwyer, "Hongkong & Shanghai Vs. the World," Business Week, August 7, 1995, pp. 59-60.
• "Far Eastern Promise and the Global Gamble," Investors' Chronicle, January 29, 1993.
• Graham, George, "HSBC Reaps Fruits of Growth Strategy," Financial Times, February 24, 1998, p. 26.
• "Greater Than the Sum of His Parts," Financial Times, March 1, 1994.
• Green, William, "Bland--And Proud of It," Forbes, July 7, 1997, pp. 94-96, 98-99.
• Holmes, A.R., and Edwin Green, Midland: 150 Years of Banking Business, London: Batsford, 1986.
• "HongkongBank's Global Gamble," Economist, March 21, 1992, pp. 107-08.
• "Hong Kong/China Boom Spawns a Global Banking Colossus," QL Stockmarket Letter, July 1, 1993.
• "The HSBC Group: A Brief History," London: HSBC Holdings plc, [1995], 31 p.
• "HSBC Maps Strategy for US Market," South China Morning Post, January 14, 1993.
• Irvine, Steve, "The Culture That Powers Hongkong Bank," Euromoney, February 1997, pp. 44+.
• Jones, Geoffrey, The History of the British Bank of the Middle East, 2 vols., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986-87.
• King, Frank H.H., The Hongkong Bank in the Period of Development and Nationalism, 1941-1984: From Regional Bank to Multinational Group, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991, 991 p.
• King, Frank H.H., editor, Eastern Banking: Essays in the History of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, London: Athlone Press, 1983, 791 p.
• King, Frank H.H., Catherine E. King, and David J.S. King, The Hongkong Bank Between the Wars and the Bank Interned, 1919-1945: Return from Grandeur, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988, 705 p.
• ------, The Hongkong Bank in Late Imperial China, 1864;ne1902: On an Even Keel, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987, 701 p.
• King, Frank H.H., David J.S. King, and Catherine E. King, The Hongkong Bank in the Period of Imperialism and War, 1895-1918: Wayfoong, the Focus of Wealth, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988, 720 p.
• Leung, James, "HongkongBank Extends Personal Touch," Asian Business, February 1997, p. 22+.
• "Loan Masters," Economist, August 28, 1993, pp. 65-66.
• Lucas, Louise, "Hongkong Bank Chief to Quit in HSBC Rejig," Financial Times, October 16, 1998, p. 25.
• ------, "Profits Growth Limited at HongkongBank," Financial Times, August 5, 1997, p. 20.
• Meyer, Richard, "Lessons from Buffalo," Financial World, July 23, 1991, pp. 37-39.
• Morris, Kathleen, "Back to the Future," Financial World, June 20, 1995, pp. 42-44.
• Muirhead, Stuart, Crisis Banking in the East: The History of the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China, 1853-93, Aldershot, England: Scolar Press, 1996, 379 p.
• Sender, Henny, and John McBeth, "Living Dangerously: Hongkong Bank Is Mired in an Indonesian Nightmare," Far Eastern Economic Review, February 29, 1996, pp. 52-53.
• Silverman, Gary, "Look British, Think Chinese: Hongkong Bank Stays No. 1," Far Eastern Economic Review, December 28, 1995, pp. 64-65.
• Tanzer, Andrew, "The Bank," Forbes, December 11, 1989, pp. 43-44.
• Vander Weyer, Martin, "Hongkong Officer Corps Builds a Global Empire," Euromoney, April, 1993, pp. 52-56.
• "Waiting for the Griffin to Pull Its Weight," Financial Times, March 16, 1993.
• "You Organise Your Bank Around Your Customers," Daily Telegraph, March 22, 1993.
• "Your Future Is Our Future," Hong Kong: The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, 1997, 36 p.

Source: International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 26. St. James Press, 1999.

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