HSBC's defining moves.
The defining strategic moves at HSBC — each one explained and grounded in the record.
The Market-Entry Gambit · Market Entry & Geography
HSBC Split Itself Into East and West. It Solved Nothing.
In October 2024 HSBC carved itself into 'eastern' and 'western' halves to ease a decade of geopolitical pressure. But it stayed London-domiciled, Asia-dependent, and answerable to both the PRA and Beijing. The split rebranded the dilemma. It didn't resolve it.
8 min
The Fall · Decision Forks
HSBC Didn't Collapse. It Keeps Dying in the Same Place: Anywhere That Isn't Asia.
The 'HSBC collapsed' story is a category error — the bank made roughly $30.3 billion in pre-tax profit in 2023, up 78%. The real autopsy is of every franchise it tried to build outside Asia, from a $14.2 billion US disaster to a $1.921 billion laundering settlement.
8 min
The Fall · Decision Forks
HSBC Spent Four Decades Learning It Could Never Be an American Bank
The 2021 "exit from US retail" is told as a clean strategic pivot. It was the third divestiture wave in a forty-year retreat that began in 1980 — and the segment HSBC was fleeing earned $1.0bn in 2020. The problem was never losses. It was scale.
8 min