HSBC HOLDINGS PLC

HSBC Holdings can be traced back to the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank which was founded by Sir Thomas Sutherland in 1865. The company would grow and soon have a network that reached Europe and North America, establishing its presence in Thailand as its first bank. It played an important role in handling bullion, exchange, merchant banking, and note issuing, providing China’s first public loan and issuing most of China’s public loans afterwards. The bank would become the leading financial institution in Asia by the end of the 19th century. HSBC expanded its activities in Asia to include more loans to national governments and new branches in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Manila, and Shanghai. The bank would survive the 1930 economic recession, although it would have to rely its large reserves built up during peace times. HSBC would begin a series of restructuring, diversifying itself through a series of alliances and acquisitions including the purchase of the Mercantile Bank and British Bank of the Middle East. By the latter half of the 20th century, the bank would transform itself into a leading international financial services organization, merging with a series of banks such as the Marine Midland Bank and Midland Bank, forming a new HSBC Holdings company to be based in London. At the turn of the millennia, the bank continued to expand through mergers, including the Polski Kredyt Bank, Household Finance Corporation, and Marks & Spencer Retail Financial Services Holdings, among others. Today HSBC has over 6600 offices in 80 across around the globe and is the world’s largest bank in terms of assets with over $2.6 total assets. The bank operates its subsidiary businesses through four groups: Commercial Banking, Global Banking and Markets, Retail Banking and Wealth Management, and Global Private Banking. Its employee number over a quarter million and its annual revenue reaches over $60 billion. Some of HSBC’s mutual funds, many of which have won awards, including its Emerging Markets Debt Fund, Total Return Fund, Income Strategy Fund, and Balanced Strategy Fund. Its ETFs include S&P BRIC 40 UCITS ETF, MSCI China UCITS ETF and MSCI World UCITS ETF.