HONGKONG Bank has dropped its local name and rechristened itself HSBC to develop a global brand in a move image experts say will offend SAR customers.
The 133-year-old financial institution will unify all its overseas operations - such as the United Kingdom's Midland Bank and the British Bank of the Middle East - under the acronym for the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.
Signs outside branches, credit cards, cheque books and stationery will be changed in a $387 million revamp to be finished by the end of next year.
It will be a huge job in Hong Kong where the corporation has 436 offices and says three out of four people are its customers. It has 5,500 offices worldwide.
HSBC Group chairman John Bond said the name change reflected the group's operations in a 'global marketplace'.
But Public Relations Association of Hong Kong vice-president Percy Ho Chi-yuen said: 'From a PR perspective, it's a bad move.