"The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank" was founded by Scotsman Sir Thomas Sutherland in the then British colony of Hong Kong on 3 March 1865, and in Shanghai a month later, benefiting from the start of trading into China, including opium trading. It was formally incorporated as "The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation" by an Ordinance of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong on 14 August 1866. In 1980, HSBC acquired a 51% shareholding in US-based Marine Midland Bank, which it extended to full ownership in 1987. On 6 October 1989, it was renamed by the Legislative Council, by an amendment to its governing ordinance originally made in 1929, "The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited", and became registered as a regulated bank with the then Banking Commissioner of the Government of Hong Kong. "HSBC Holdings plc", originally incorporated in England and Wales, in the United Kingdom, as "Vernat Trading Company Limited" on 1 January 1959 and then renamed "Vernat Eastern Agencies Limited" later in the same year, was by then a non-trading, dormant shelf company under a different, nominal name, when it completed its transformation on 25 March 1991 into the parent holding company to the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited now as a subsidiary, in preparation for its purchase of the UK-based Midland Bank and the impending transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China. HSBC Holdings' acquisition of Midland Bank was completed in 1992 and gave HSBC a substantial market presence in the United Kingdom. As part of the takeover conditions for the acquisition, HSBC Holdings plc was required to relocate its world headquarters from Hong Kong to London in 1993. Major acquisitions in South America started with the purchase of the Banco Bamerindus of Brazil for $1bn in March 1997 and the acquisition of Roberts SA de Inversiones of Argentina for $600M in May 1997. In May 1999, HSBC expanded its presence in the United States with the purchase of Republic National Bank of New York for $10.3bn.
Today, HSBC Holdings PLC is a British–Hong Kong multinational banking and financial services holding company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's seventh largest bank by total assets and the largest in Europe with total assets of US$2.374 trillion (as of December 2016). It was established in its present form in London in 1991 by The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited to act as a new group holding company. The origins of the bank lie mainly in Hong Kong and to a lesser extent in Shanghai, where branches were first opened in 1865. The HSBC name is derived from the initials of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. The company was first formally incorporated in 1866. The company continues to see both the United Kingdom and Hong Kong as its "home markets". HSBC has around 4,000 offices in 70 countries and territories across Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, North America and South America, and around 37 million customers. As of 2014, it was the world's sixth-largest public company, according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine. HSBC is organised within four business groups: Commercial Banking; Global Banking and Markets (investment banking); Retail Banking and Wealth Management; and Global Private Banking. HSBC has a dual primary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the Hang Seng Index and the FTSE 100 Index. As of 6 July 2012 it had a market capitalisation of £102.7 billion, the second-largest company listed on the London Stock Exchange, after Royal Dutch Shell. It has secondary listings on the New York Stock Exchange, Euronext Paris and the Bermuda Stock Exchange. In February 2015 the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released information about the business conduct of HSBC under the title Swiss Leaks. The ICIJ alleges that the bank profited from doing business with tax evaders and other clients. The BBC reported that HSBC had put pressure on media not to report about the controversy, with British newspaper The Guardian claiming HSBC advertising had been put "on pause" after The Guardian's coverage of the matter. Peter Oborne, chief political commentator at The Daily Telegraph resigned from the paper; in an open letter he claimed the newspaper suppressed negative stories and dropped investigations into HSBC because of the bank's advertising. In 2016, HSBC was sued by Mexican families involved in deaths by organized crime gangs for processing funds ("money laundering") for the Sinaloa Cartel.