Hsbc Holding Plc

The HSBC Group is named after its founding member, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, which was established in 1865 to finance the growing trade between Europe, India and China.

The inspiration behind the founding of the bank was Thomas Sutherland, a Scot who was then working for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. He realised that there was considerable demand for local banking facilities in Hong Kong and on the China coast and he helped to establish the bank which opened in Hong Kong in March 1865 and in Shanghai a month later.

Soon after its formation the bank opened agencies and branches around the world. Although that network reached as far as Europe and North America, the emphasis was on building up representation in China and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. HSBC was a pioneer of modern banking practices in a number of countries. In Japan, where a branch was established in 1866, the bank acted as adviser to the government on banking and currency. In 1888, it was the first bank to be established in Thailand, where it printed the country’s first banknotes.

By the end of the century, after a strong period of growth and success under the leadership of Thomas Jackson (chief manager for most of that period from 1876 to 1902), the bank was the foremost financial institution in Asia.

In the early years of the twentieth century, HSBC widened the scope of its activities in the East. It became increasingly involved in the issuing of loans to national governments, especially in China, to finance modernisation and internal infrastructure projects such as railway building

1946-1979

After the Second World War HSBC quickly restored its head office powers and functions to Hong Kong. In the immediate post-war period the bank quickly took on a key role in the reconstruction of the Hong Kong economy. Its support for the skills and experiences of newcomers to Hong Kong was especially vital to the upsurge in manufacturing in this period.

In its other markets, however, the bank needed to make major readjustments. Most of the mainland offices in China were closed between 1949 and 1955, leaving only the Shanghai office to continue its long and eventful service. These changes carried the risk that the bank was over-concentrating its interests in Hong Kong. The bank addressed this concern by diversifying its business in a series of alliances and acquisitions.

In the Asia-Pacific region, key additions were the Mercantile Bank in 1959; a controlling interest in Hang Seng Bank Limited in 1965; and the formation of a merchant bank arm, Wardley Limited, in 1972.

The history of the Mercantile Bank stretched back to its foundation in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1853 and the bank was particularly strong in the Indian sub-continent and Malaysia.

Hang Seng Bank, in contrast, was a local Hong Kong bank established in 1933. These developments were complemented by the purchase of The British Bank of the Middle East in 1959