For the second year in a row, HSBC walks away with the award for Asia’s best bank – and deservedly so. Outgoing chief executive Noel Quinn’s decisive move in early 2020 to pivot to Asia by redeploying $100 billion in risk-weighted assets has delivered, generating strong new income streams and squeezing more gains from key product lines such as wealth management and transaction banking.
AfE 2024
Most impressive has been the bank’s ability to deliver on its promise of being a genuinely pan-Asian bank, serving multiple large markets in south, southeast and north Asia. It posted $10.7 billion in pre-tax profit in its bedrock market of Hong Kong in 2023, up a staggering 80% year on year.
The bank’s foundations in Hong Kong and China are well known. The two markets are “at the heart of literally everything we do,” says David Liao, co-chief executive of HSBC Asia Pacific. “We are highly relevant to our clients, particularly at a time of China’s transformation. At a time when China is driving high-quality innovative growth, we are there. We bank the top-five Chinese electric vehicle makers, and we cover their needs in 23 key markets.
“HSBC’s network is capturing a lot of the ‘China-plus-one’ trade and investment activities,” he adds. “And that relates not just to China itself but to outbound connectivity to the rest of the world: to the Middle East but also in terms of Foxconn’s growing presence in India, and to Samsung’s rising investment in Vietnam via Singapore. We are at the heart of all those conversations.”
What also impressed during the awards period was the power of the bank’s franchise in other large regional markets.
HSBC posted record 2023 pre-tax profits in three other key jurisdictions: Singapore, where it reached $1.1 billion, India ($1.5 billion) and mainland China ($1.1 billion). It also reported strong pre-tax profit numbers in Australia ($566 million), Malaysia ($467 million) and Taiwan ($362 million).
“Many of our other markets are coming through with material profits,” says Surendra Rosha, co-chief executive of HSBC Asia Pacific. “We have these other markets that are really coming through and pushing ahead.”
If one economy was the story of the year in Asia for HSBC in 2023 it was Singapore, where pre-tax profit jumped 45%, and where the value of its international wealth management franchise really came to the fore. In 2023, the number of new-to-bank wealth and private banking clients in Singapore surged 76% year on year.
HSBC banks more than 2,500 startups in India, including 50% of the country’s 100 largest unicorns, more than 100 electric vehicle startups and more than 20 space-tech startups. In July 2023, it relaunched its global private banking business in south Asia’s largest economy. The new business aims to serve clients with investable assets of more than $2 million, with a key focus on high and ultra-high net-worth professionals, entrepreneurs and their families.
Another notable private banking development saw HSBC buy Citi’s retail wealth management portfolio in mainland China. The deal, announced in October 2023, comprises $3.6 billion in assets and deposits, with associated wealth customers across 11 big cities. Total invested assets under management at HSBC China grew 53% year on year in 2023, with the number of clients up by more than 30%.
Most impressive has been HSBC’s ability to deliver on its promise of being a genuinely pan-Asian bank, serving multiple large markets in south, southeast and north Asia
Across Asia, the bank is a leader wherever you look. It ranks number one in Asia in large corporate banking penetration and in large corporate cash management penetration, according to research firm Coalition Greenwich, enabling it to walk away with the regional award for best bank for transaction services.
And once again HSBC wins the award for best bank for sustainable finance in Asia. A serial winner of the category, the lender has reduced carbon emissions in its Asia Pacific operations by 56% since 2019 and is on track to hit its net-zero emissions ambitions in its own operations by 2030.
The bank’s moved swiftly and decisively to buy Silicon Valley Bank UK in March 2023 for a nominal sum. At the time, Quinn cited the potential to enhance the bank’s ability to serve innovative and fast-growing firms, including in the technology and life-science sectors, both in the UK and globally.
He wasn’t wrong. In the wake of the acquisition, it launched HSBC Innovation Banking in Asia, basing the business in Hong Kong and linking it to other hubs in Britain, Israel and the US. It allows the firm to act as a key lender to Asia’s unicorns, and to other fast-growing, tech-heavy corporates busy reshaping the world.