HSBC has been through many crises in its 155-year history but the threat it faces now appears to be among its most serious (Katherine Griffiths writes). Generations of leaders of the international bank have found ways to guide it through times of war, economic strife and political unrest. But the team in charge at present are struggling to follow in their footsteps.
It is not that they are doing an incompetent job but that the parties involved in the present conflict appear to want to force the bank to pick a side. Is HSBC a western-grounded financial institution whose values mirror those of the UK, where its shares are listed, and the US, a small market for the bank but the world’s largest economy? Or
