HSBC, one of the grande dames of international banking, celebrates its 150th anniversary on March 3. The bank is not celebrating much else these days.
HSBC published 2014 financial results last week that impressed nobody: profit down 17 percent, driven largely by regulatory fines and penalties last year totaling $2.4 billion. CEO Stuart Gulliver spent part of his earnings announcement apologizing for HSBC’s Swiss private bank unit, under investigation for helping customers to evade taxes. Gulliver himself had one such account in the 2000s, adding to criticism of his tenure.
