Asia Sentinel ‘Strategic refreshment in the cards, whatever that means Share 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 banking and wealth management, supposedly a gold mine as Asian million- and billionaires proliferate?