Asia Sentinel
‘Strategic refreshment in the cards, whatever that means
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HSBC, aka the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, is due to announce a “strategic refreshment” next month, according to Bloomberg.
“Not again,” critics might mutter as the London-based bank whose major profits center is Hong Kong, struggles to define itself. Once the very model of a conservative bank run more to oil the wheels of commerce and sustain financial stability than please investment funds, its very diversity is now a threat.
Last year it announced a shift of resources away from Europe and the US back towards Asia. The pandemic and what it has revealed has apparently further sharpened this focus. But Asia is a big place, so what exactly does this Asia mean? And what sort of banking? Commercial and retail – its traditional base and prime source of profits even today? Or investment banking, in which it has long had a presence but never progressed to the big leagues? Or private