Hong Kong HSBC
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited

Everybody knows that Hong Kong HSBC is one of the worlds biggest international banking companies. When it comes to branding HSBC is at the top of mind.

But how did Hong Kong HSBC attain such a big name and reputation? How did a company based in Hong Kong, a group of islands in the Far East, overtake the other industry players in the international market?

HSBC is short for Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited; also written as The Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited. THE BANK is a wholly owned subsidiary and the founding member of the HSBC Group.

The company's name in traditional Chinese is "wui fung ngan hong". The HSBC Group holds a wide variety of businesses that range from the traditional High Street roles of personal finance and commercial banking, to corporate investment and banking, and private banking.

Thomas Sutherland founded Hong Kong HSBC in 1865. He established Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation to finance the growing trade between China and Europe and opened the first office in Shanghai.

The bank was later incorporated in Hong Kong by special dispensation from the British Treasury in 1866. And under the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Ordinance 1866, a new branch in Japan was also established.

International expansion started almost a decade after the Second World War, led by Michael Turner, who was chief manager in 1953. When Turners term ended in 1962, THE BANK was already established in California, acquired the British Bank of the Middle East and as well as the Mercantile Bank in India. From then on, the THE BANK never looked back.

Today in Hong Kong, HSBC maintains a network of around 220 branches throughout the Hong Kong SAR and offers a wide variety of financial products and services.

The brand HSBC began from the late 1980s and early 1990s although locally the bank was known by the name Hongkong. And to stand out from the crowd, Hong Kong HSBC also adopted the idiosyncratic practice of calling its ATMs Electronic Teller Card (ETC) machines, a first in the banking industry.

THE BANK is the most prolific banknotes issuer in Hong Kong. HSBC notes represent around 63% of Hong Kong bills circulating around the world. The other two bank note issuers are the Bank of China Hong Kong and Standard Chartered Bank.

The main office building or headquarters of HSBC in Hong Kong is in Central Hong Kong Island. It is auspiciously located at 1 Queen's Road Central. The Hong Kong headquarters was also home to HSBC Holdings PLC's headquarters before its controversial move to 8 Canada Square, London right before the 1997 handover.

Designed by British architect Lord Norman Foster, the Hong Kong HSBC headquarters building was the most expensive building in the world based on usable floor area at the time it was built.

The Hong Kong HSBC building have good Fung Shui because it has a wide open area in front - the Statue Square - with no other buildings blocking its view of the Victoria Harbour. The Chinese and even the British believe that those who have a direct view of a body of water, whether it is a river, a sea or an ocean, are more likely to prosper than those who do not (water is strongly associated with wealth in Fung Shui terms).

Some interesting trivia:

• In Hong Kong, the local population sometimes refers to the bank as "the Lion Bank", because of the pair of lion statues outside the HSBC headquarters, which also appear in some banknotes.

• Local films and television series set in Hong Kong, especially comedies, uses this nickname when referring to the bank.

• Although the name of Hongkong was changed to Hong Kong by Hong Kong Government on 1926-09-03, but Hong Kong HSBC uses the older Hongkong, as the bank's name was conceived before the official declaration of the modern two-word name, and it was decided to retain the single word spelling in the Bank's name: Hongkong.