HSBC Hong Kong chairman David Eldon has delivered a veiled warning to the Argentinian Government not to force the bank's hand by setting unacceptable conditions for continuing to operate in the beleaguered country.
'I would hope that no measures were taken that would be precipitous - which would force us to close a branch or walk away from something. That is not the sort of thing we do,' he said yesterday.
Asked to elaborate on measures that might force the bank's hand, Mr Eldon added: 'For example, if the Government said you either do this and put in so much money, or you close up.'
Mr Eldon, an executive director on the main board of the London-based parent of Hong Kong's biggest lender, is also the non-executive chairman of Hang Seng Bank. He was responding to press inquiries after Hang Seng's annual general meeting.
Emphasising that HSBC would take no 'knee-jerk' decisions on its Argentine operations, Mr Eldon said what was happening today may be quite different from what happened in two weeks.
He also said he believed the Argentine Government, the International Monetary Fund and commercial banks could negotiate a way through the crisis - which has led to the forced closure of the country's banks and warnings of financial collapse.
