LONDON: “HSBC Holdings plc announces that its Board of Directors has concluded its review of the best location for the headquarters of the Group, and has decided to remain headquartered in the United Kingdom,” the group said.
The Board’s decision to stay in the United Kingdom was unanimous, it added.
“The UK is an important and globally connected economy,” HSBC stressed. “London is one of the world’s leading international financial centres and home to a large pool of highly skilled, international talent. It remains therefore ideally positioned to be the home base for a global financial institution such as HSBC.”
The bank’s shareholders agreed to review a possible move to Hong Kong on April 24, 2015, amid the biggest overhaul of the UK banking system.
In 2010, the UK government introduced a bank tax to fund its financial system rescue efforts. Since then, it has raised the tax nine times. As a result, HSBC’s payment has more than doubled since 2012. In 2014, HSBC paid about $1.1 billion on the tax, over a one-year profit of $13.7 billion.
On March 5, the UK Parliament approved the Banking Reform Act boosting regulation of the national banking system. In particular, the reforms put the Bank of England back at the center of the supervisory regime to ensure safe practices among financial institutions in the country.
