HSBC celebrates 160 years of great stories
As the bank marks its anniversary, explore defining moments in its history gathered from the South China Morning Post archives
How did a bank founded in Hong Kong become one of the world’s leading financial services organisations? To answer this, we must wind back the clock to tell a story of international connectivity, innovation and community that spans 160 years, all in celebration of the birth of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.
Looking through the archives of the South China Morning Post, with its more than 120 years of news on Hong Kong, we have collated a time capsule of stories that illustrate the bank’s esteemed history.
April 17, 1908: telling the tale of HSBC’s founding
Sir Thomas Sutherland, the founder of HSBC, wrote a letter in which he recalled how he came to establish the bank in the 1860s. While serving as the superintendent of the P and O Company in Hong Kong, in charge of its business interests in China and Japan, he had a conversation with an associate about the Royal Bank of China’s high premium shares. This inspired him to develop a prospectus for a local bank for China. His principle for its success was based on the same cooperation that had been carried out with local insurance societies, which at the time were earning handsome returns for shareholders. Within days, the prospectus was advertised and the new bank’s shares became highly subscribed.
March 1, 1965: the bank’s gift to Hong Kong
To mark its 100th anniversary, HSBC donated scholarships worth HK$50,000 a year to train social workers at the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. At the time, the bank said the development of professional social work was an integral part of social services benefiting the people of Hong Kong, and a lack of trained staff had limited the rate at which the city had been able to progress in the social welfare field.
HSBC presented each university with about HK$25,000 a year for the scholarships, with the hope that this might serve to encourage some of the more outstanding students at the two universities to enter a career in social work.
March 3, 1965: centenary programme of events
HSBC’s 100th anniversary was also marked by a programme of special events. They included an exhibition at City Hall of paintings and sketches by George Chinnery, an English artist who spent much of his life in Asia, and a fireworks display in Victoria Harbour. Numerous celebratory gatherings were also held at hotel venues across the city for Hong Kong officials, members of the Executive and Legislative Councils, and consular and trade officials of countries in which the bank had offices, as well as HSBC’s legal advisers, accountants, architects and distinguished visitors.
In addition, The Community Relief Trust Fund, which since its establishment in 1959 has received several generous donations from HSBC, received a new donation of HK$200,000 from the bank in commemoration of its centenary.
April 2, 1986: banking on good feng shui at new headquarters
Feng shui played a part in setting the opening date of the HK$5 billion HSBC headquarters. The 47-storey building at Statue Square in Hong Kong’s Central district was seen as a futuristic work of architecture at the time, with its ultra-modern design dominating the skyline.
Bank officials consulted David Lung King-chuen, a feng shui expert who advised on the building at every stage of construction. He concluded that Monday, April 7, 1986, would be an auspicious day for the opening ceremony, with a time between 7pm and 9pm.
The ceremony was set for 8pm that day on the ground plaza of the building, with an eye-dotting ceremony followed by a dragon dance that led up the building’s glass-sided escalators to the main banking hall. The 10-minute dragon dance, which was performed instead of the usual lion dance done at a bank branch opening, signified the importance of the event.
May 2, 1994: Chinese motifs set the tone for currency notes
In 1972, after working as a consultant for 18 years with HSBC, designing annual reports and modernising the bank’s image, graphic designer Henry Steiner was asked to update versions of the bank’s HK$100 and HK$500 notes.
He wanted a design that would not become obsolete over the next decade and would not be easily copied. Steiner, who was born in Vienna, grew up in New York and has lived in Hong Kong since the 1960s, also wanted designs that would incorporate both the Chinese and foreign communities but get away from themes such as colonialism. He said the note he is most proud of is HSBC’s HK$500 note, which features the profile of a lion and a scene of the former HSBC building in Central district.
July 29, 2006: historic guardians of HSBC headquarters
The two bronze lions outside HSBC’s Hong Kong headquarters are one of the most recognisable – and apparently lucky – landmarks in Hong Kong. These lions have guarded the bank building’s main entrance at No 1 Queen’s Road since 1935.
They are the second set of three, modelled on the imposing lions originally guarding the Shanghai offices of HSBC on the Bund. They were cast in Britain, shipped to Shanghai and began their guard duties in 1923.
After the second world war, they were taken by the Japanese to Japan to be melted down. They were then spotted in a dockyard in Osaka in 1945, returned to Hong Kong the following year and placed back in their original positions overnight on October 17, 1946.
February 22, 2022: HSBC donates HK$100m to help poor families
HSBC donated HK$100 million to help low-income households hit hard by the Covid-19 outbreak, one of the biggest amounts donated by the city’s financial sector.
The bank joined other firms, including Bright Smart Securities, Futu Securities, Ant Group and FTLife, that offered support ranging from monetary donations to testing kits and other help to the city, which faced record infections nearly every day amid the fifth wave of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Hongkong Bank Foundation, HSBC’s charitable arm, teamed up with the Hong Kong Red Cross to help households undergoing home quarantine because of infections among family members or lockdowns of residential buildings for tests.
Under the programme, it also provided care packages including Covid-19 test kits, food, household items and basic medicines for these families. It also included a hotline to offer support and health-related information for those having to quarantine.
October 12, 2022: HSBC teams up with M+ to support arts and culture in Asia
As Hong Kong’s largest bank, HSBC has long recognised the importance of the arts and culture in society. It teamed up with M+, the city’s museum of contemporary visual culture, to support arts and cultural development in the city and across Asia, becoming the museum’s first Lead Partner in 2022.
The partnership forms part of HSBC’s #OpenToArt initiative, created out of the two institutions’ common vision of bringing extraordinary contemporary art and culture experiences to the Hong Kong public.
HSBC also served as Lead Sponsor of M+’s first Special Exhibition, “Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now” – the largest retrospective of the renowned Japanese artist to be staged in Asia outside Japan, which opened as the museum marked its first anniversary.
The exhibition featured more than 200 works honouring Kusama, known for her unique artistic language, in particular her signature mirrored spaces and polka dots.
April 10, 2024: HSBC to host second investment summit after resounding success of ‘Hong Kong is back’ pitch
HSBC announced plans to host its second Global Investment Summit (GIS) in the first four months of 2025 in Hong Kong, shortly after its sell-out inaugural conference in 2024 drew 3,500 attendees. GIS 2024 saw the bank host more than 5,000 meetings over three days for attendees and customers from over 40 countries. The attendance, right after the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament, was testament to the deep interest among global investors about Hong Kong, given the city’s role as the bridge between the world and the vast business opportunities in mainland China.
Having Hong Kong in the spotlight suits HSBC, which earned 35 per cent, or US$10.7 billion, of its 2023 pre-tax fourth-quarter profit from the city, making it the bank’s largest single market. Hong Kong also contributed the most to HSBC’s deposits, assets, spending on cards, insurance and cash management.
March 3, 2025: HSBC invests in Hong Kong’s future with exciting milestones this March
HSBC’s Global Investment Summit (GIS) returns this month, alongside a series of cultural initiatives celebrating the bank’s 160th anniversary.
Building on the success of the inaugural GIS, the second edition of the summit will take place from March 25 to 27, presenting exclusive insights and thought-provoking dialogue from world-class experts like former Italian prime minister and former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, Ark Invest founder and CEO Cathie Wood, IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna, and Apollo Global Management president Jim Zelter.
Also this month, HSBC is celebrating 160 years through art with its role as Lead Partner of M+ and major sponsor of its Special Exhibition, “The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Picasso for Asia – A Conversation”.
HSBC has also been named the exclusive Premier Founding Partner of the newly opened Kai Tak Sports Park, which will host the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament later this month – an event which HSBC has proudly sponsored for decades.
