Concept in Definition ABC

These acronyms refer to a British multinational in the financial sector, specifically Hong Konk and Sanghai Banking Corporation. Although this entity was officially founded in 1991, it has been operating since 1865. Its main headquarters are in London and its corporate identity It is a hexagonal symbol inspired by the cross of Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland.

A giant of banking and finance

At the international level, it serves 40 million clients in 70 countries. It is one of the main indicators stock exchanges of both the London Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

In 2014 it obtained a net profit close to 5 billion dollars. According to its assets, in 2018 it was declared the seventh Bank of the world and according to capitalization stock exchange it ranks eighth within the banking sector.

It has 266,000 employees at its various locations. One of its main delegations is the HSBC Tower in the Mexican capital. In 2017 it was chosen as the best international trade bank in Argentina.

International trade is the backbone of HSBC's various financial activities (one million dollars are processed per minute in operations related to global trade and its intermediation accounts for 14% of the entire global market of the planet).

HSBC's historical origins are related to the opium trade during the 19th century

The germ of this entity dates back to 1865, when the Scotsman Thomas Sutherland founded a local bank in Hong Kong with the purpose of speeding up the activity financial between the British colony and the various financial markets of Asia.

In a few years, the entity became the main financial engine of the continent Asian. The Hong Kong bank played a prominent role in the Opium Wars.

The trigger for conflict it was the introduction into China of opium grown in India, which was marketed by the British East India Company. The opium trade was a major source of income for the British, as it allowed them to balance their balance of payments with China (Great Britain had to compensate the expenses that came from the Chinese tea taxes).

The systems engineer Hervé Falciani worked in a subsidiary of the financial institution and his information has been very relevant to publicize the irregularities of HSBC

The courts of several countries, a committee of the United States Senate and various journalistic investigations have linked HSBC and some of its subsidiaries with different illicit activities: money laundering, drug trafficking, tax fraud and financial intermediation illegal.

Many of these accusations are related to the revelations of Hervé Falciani, a former employee of the Swiss subsidiary of HSBC.

Fotolia photos: Oktopus / Vipman4