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.