Go east, young man! Not that HSBC needs any encouragement: it started life in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1865, financing trade between China and Europe. It has been part of the region's furniture ever since, even though management moved to London in 1992, when it bought Midland Bank. The lender's move from its City of London headquarters to Canary Wharf in 2002 was a tiny step back east. Chief executive Michael Geoghegan's relocation to Hong Kong next February is a big step.
His move will hit all the right buttons for HSBC's Chinese hosts. But it also reflects a fundamental shift of the centre of gravity of trade and investment from west to east, already evident in the Group of 20's expansion from eight members to includeemerging market nations. Mr Geoghegan wants to be a gatekeeper to that change. It makes commercial sense too: Asia contributed almost a quarter of HSBC's first-half net income before impairment charges.
Other banks have sent divisional heads to Hong Kong, but HSBC's dispatch of its CEO signals it has put emerging markets at the top of its agenda. It does not, however, indicate fatigue from mounting political and regulatory pressure in London. Hedge fund managers and others may be tempted to relocate to more welcoming climes, but HSBC will keep its legal domicile and tax base in the UK, home to more than half its investors.