HSBC's board has "moved on" from exploring selling its Asian business in a move that would have kowtowed to its largest shareholder, the bank's chief executive said yesterday.

Speaking at the Financial Times's banking summit, Noel Quinn yesterday doubled down on his conviction that HSBC should continue to operate as a global bank.

Investors "want an international bank," Quinn, 61, who worked his way up HSBC's hierarchy after joining Midland Bank, which the high street lender acquired in 1992, to take the top spot, said.

Ping An, a Chinese insurer and HSBC's largest shareholder, has for over a year been lobbying the lender to carve out its Asian business to stop it from continuously being dragged down by underperforming arms elsewhere.

Pretty much all of HSBC's profits are generated by its Hong Kong and Chinese activities. Its UK arm actually is loss-making, according to the bank's latest set of results.

Quinn said the board had given splitting up the bank "serious consideration" but concluded there was "not an economic case" for signing off a demerger.

During the Covid-19 crisis, UK regulators stopped banks distributing dividends.

That ban stemmed a flow of cash to Asian retail investors, sparking calls from the East for HSBC to sell the Asia arm.

Quinn said he does not believe Chinese politicians are secretly orchestrating Ping An's breakup campaign.

(c) 2022 City A.M., source Newspaper