HSBC to wind down New Zealand wealth and personal banking arm as pivot to Asia picks up pace
HSBC will be winding down its wealth and personal banking businesses in New Zealand as it continues its withdrawal from various markets around the world.
In a statement the bank said “it has become clear that we can no longer justify investing into this business given the changing operating requirements in the market and scalability of the business.”
It confirmed the wind-down will happen “over several years in a phased manner”.
HSBC’s New Zealand business has been under review since November last year, when the lender suggested it would look to sell the division.
The lender has been considering its position in a number of markets worldwide under pressure from Ping An, its largest shareholder.
The Chinese insurer led a failed campaign to force the bank to spin off HSBC’s Asian business, which generates most of the profit.
Although the campaign was blocked by shareholders at its most recent AGM, HSBC has dropped many of its retail businesses globally in the last year or so in an attempt to reduce its cost base.
It has withdrawn or is in the process of withdrawing from Canada, Russia and Greece.
It is also attempting to extricate itself from its French retail business, although this has faced delays as rising interest rates forced the buyer, Cerberus, to stump up more cash.
There are likely to be more withdrawals to come. In an interview with Reuters earlier this year, finance chief Georges Elhedery said the bank is considering exiting as many as a dozen countries as it pivots towards Asia.
Last month it unveiled a series of measures designed to boost revenue by up to nine per cent in its Asian wealth business over the next three to four years.