HSBC will not “flip-flop” on strategy every time there is a flare-up in tensions between Beijing and the west, according to chief executive Noel Quinn, rebuffing criticism of the bank for moving closer to China as it cracks down on Hong Kong.
Europe’s largest bank is being used as a political piñata, trapped between two superpowers in an increasingly belligerent confrontation that shows little sign of abating under US President Joe Biden.
“We’ve been in that role for 156 years,” Quinn said in an interview. “You’re cognisant of those tensions, you try to manage them to the best of your ability, but you can’t redraw the core strategy of the bank based on what is a relative moment in time.