Our history

For more than 150 years we have connected customers to opportunities. We enable businesses to thrive and economies to prosper, helping people to realise their ambitions. Today, we serve more than 40 million customers worldwide in 65 countries and territories.

The experiences of the past century and a half have formed the character of HSBC. A glance at our history explains why we believe in capital strength, in strict cost control and in building long-term relationships with customers.

The bank has weathered change in all forms – revolutions, economic crises, new technologies – and adapted to survive. The resulting corporate character enables HSBC to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Read more about how a local bank in Hong Kong grew into a global financial institution in The HSBC Group: Our story (PDF 3MB).

Did you know?

HSBC has developed a number of traditions over its years in business and employed people who would later find fame in other fields. For example:

• The bank’s name is derived from the initials of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, the founding member of HSBC
• HSBC’s red and white hexagon symbol was developed from the bank’s original house flag which was in turn based on the cross of St Andrew
• The HSBC lions are nicknamed Stephen and Stitt after senior managers from the 1920s
• The comic author P G Wodehouse, creator of Jeeves and Wooster, spent two years working at HSBC’s London office. He was recorded as being late for work 20 times in his first year