HSBC to redeploy US$1.5 billion to Hong Kong, Asia from ‘low-return’ markets as CEO cuts costs

Hong Kong’s biggest bank announced US$2 billion in a share buy-back programme and 87 US cents per share in dividend

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HSBC’s branch on Pedder Street, Central on
5 May 2023. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Published: 12:35pm, 19 Feb 2025Updated: 6:03pm, 19 Feb 2025

HSBC Holdings said it would invest more resources in Hong Kong’s wealth-management products and services in the coming years, as the city’s biggest commercial bank restructures to cut costs and grow in its largest market in terms of revenue.

The 160-year-old bank plans to redeploy US$1.5 billion from “low-return” markets to Hong Kong and other parts of Asia, HSBC’s CEO Georges Elhedery said on Wednesday after unveiling a 2 per cent growth in 2024 net profit.

As part of the plan, HSBC has started to scale down its investment banking and capital markets activities in the US, UK and Europe. It also plans to sell its private bank in Germany and its insurance business in France.

“We will reinvest these funds in our areas of growth, namely in wealth [management] in Asia, particularly Hong Kong,” Elhedery said via an online media briefing, in his first set of annual financial results since taking HSBC’s helm in September from Noel Quinn.

“Hong Kong is on track to becoming the world’s largest cross-border wealth hub, [inasmuch] as Hong Kong is also a global financial centre. There are definitely a lot of investments that we will put in this market to support the growth here.”

Georges Elhedery, Group Chief Executive, HSBC Holdings at the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit on 19 November 2024. Photo: Dickson Lee

The London-based bank, one of Europe’s largest by assets, generates most of its revenue from Asia – particularly Hong Kong – which is its largest market.