HSBC COULD STAY IN UK, HINTS CHAIRMAN DOUGLAS FLINT

Douglas Flint, HSBC chairman.

HSBC’s chairman has suggested the bank could retain its domicile in the UK, as his bank mulls moving its headquarters back to the Far East.

Douglas Flint warned that he expected the Black Monday stock market crash, which was sparked in China, would be repeated, and that Britain’s regulatory system was better suited to a global banking titan.

“Regulatory regimes reflect their constituents, and most markets outside the UK, US and EU are essentially regional as the banks there are domestic or are subsidiaries of international banks,” he said in a lecture at Cass Business School in London. “There is a common platform of rules under Basel, but the application is domestic.

“London has the biggest concentration of international banks and is one of the two largest financial centres in the world, and the regulatory expertise here reflects that need.”

Mr Flint’s comments come at a sensitive time for HSBC, as the bank is considering moving its domicile out of the UK.

Investors and analysts consider Hong Kong to be the most likely alternative if the bank does decide to go, as it is HSBC’s historic home and the source of a large chunk of its profits.

The Telegraph