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 Headquarters at452 Fifth Avenue | |
| Formerly | Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation of California (1955–1979) Marine Midland Bank, N.A. (1980–1999) Marine Midland Banks Inc (1929–1995) HSBC Americas (1995–1999) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Finance and Insurance |
| Founded | July 10, 1850; 175 years ago (1850-07-10) |
| Founders | James S. Wadsworth |
| Headquarters | 452 Fifth Avenue,New York City,New York, U.S. |
Number of locations | 148 Branches (until Feb 18, 2022)20-25 International Wealth Center (Beginning Feb 22, 2022) |
Key people | Michael Roberts (chairman,president, andCEO) |
| Products | Financial services |
Number of employees | 43,000 (includingHSBC Finance) |
| Parent | HSBC |
| Website | www |
HSBC Bank USA, National Association, an American subsidiary of the British banking groupHSBC, is abank with its operational head office in New York City and its nominal head office inTysons, Virginia (as designated on its charter). HSBC Bank USA, N.A. is a national bank chartered under theNational Bank Act, and thus is regulated by theOffice of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a part of theU.S. Department of the Treasury.
Although this company was established in 1850 asMarine Midland Bank, its presence dates to 1865 when HSBC entered into the American market by opening an office inSan Francisco before becoming a branch in 1875. Through multiple expansions nationwide and the full acquisition of Marine Midland in 1987, the company adopted its current HSBC USA name in 1999.
The company has 22branch locations, down from the previous 148 before divesting its retail banking business toCitizens Financial Group,Cathay Bank andKeyBank in 2021.[1]
TheHongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation began its presence into the United States market in 1865 when it opened an office inSan Francisco,California. That office became a full-fledged branch in1875 and in 1880, the bank opened its first East Coast branch in New York City.[2]
In 1980, HSBC acquired a 51% controlling interest inMarine Midland Bank, headquartered inBuffalo, New York. The bank's roots had dated to 1850. HSBC acquired the remaining interest in 1987.[3]
In 1994, Marine Midland acquired Spectrum Home Mortgage, which operated in eight states. In 1995, Marine Midland acquired United Northern Federal Savings Bank, with branches inWatertown andLowville, New York. Marine Midland also acquired The HSBC's 6 New York City retail branches, and the next yearHang Seng Bank's two branches in New York City.
That same year, Marine Midland acquired 11 branches from the East River Savings Bank in the New York Metropolitan area. Marine also acquired the US dollar clearing business ofJPMorgan Chase. At the same time, HSBC transferred 2 branches in the northwestern United States toHSBC Bank Canada. The next year, Marine completed its acquisition of First Federal Savings and Loan from Toronto-basedCanada Trust, for $620 million. First Federal Savings, headquartered inRochester, had $7.2 billion in assets, 1,600 employees, 79 retail branches in the State of New York and 15 mortgage origination offices in 9 states.
In 1998, Marine Midland acquired First Commercial Bank of Philadelphia, which had $90 million in assets and $78 million in deposits in two branches and focused on the Asian-American community, for $23.75 million.[4]
In 1999, the company acquiredRepublic New York for $10.3 billion and moved its head office fromOne HSBC Center in Buffalo to what is now theHSBC Tower on Fifth Avenue.[5][6]
As part of the global rebranding campaign, HSBC Americas (formerly Marine Midland) was rebranded into HSBC Bank USA in June 1999.
In 2004, HSBC USA sold two upstate New York branches to Gloversville-basedCity National Bank & Trust Co.[7] HSBC did not have enough nearby branches to give iteconomies of scale.
In July 2011, the company sold its 195 branches in upstate New York toFirst Niagara Financial Group for $1 billion, effectively selling-off the core of the old Marine Midland Bank.[8][9]
In 2015, the company paid $30 million to settle a lawsuit regardingoverdraft fees.[10]
In 2016, theOffice of the Comptroller of the Currency imposed a $35 million fine on the company for deceptive billing practices.[11]
In 2019, HSBC announced plans to open new branches, including one inDepew, New York, near one of its remaining back offices in Buffalo. This came as a surprise after HSBC sold its branch network in Upstate New York in 2012 to First Niagara, KeyBank, Community Bank, N.A. and Five Star Bank.
In January 2019, HSBC announced it would open two new branches in Western New York, as part of the bank’s initiative to open 50 branches in new and existing markets in the United States.[12][13] In February 2020, Reuters News Agency reported that HSBC Holdings would shed $100 billion in assets, shrink its investment bank and revamp its U.S. and European businesses, including closing around a third of its 224 branches and target only international and wealthier clients.[14]
In February 2021 it was reported that HSBC is planning to pull out of all retail banking in the United States and that it is exploring a sale of its remaining 150 branches.[15][16] These reports proved true; on May 26, 2021, HSBC announced that it would abandon the United States retail market as part of a pivot to Asia. In April 2022,Citizens Bank completed the acquisition of 80 branches from HSBC in New York City, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and Florida.[17] HSBC's 10 West Coast branches are expected to be sold toCathay Bank. 35-40 branches are expected to be closed entirely rather than be sold to another bank. HSBC also announced it would maintain around two dozen locations within the United States, converting the branches from standard retail banks to "international wealth centers" for the use of international travelers who use HSBC, corporations, and certain high net-worth clients.[18][19]
In December 2012, HSBC paid a record $1.9 billion fine for laundering in excess of $881,000,000 in drug cartel money and violating anti-terrorism sanctions.[20][21][22][23] The cartels that HSBC helped included the Sinaloa cartel.[24]
In September 2020, the FinCEN Files probe revealed that HSBC moved vast sums of dirty money for international criminals. HSBC did so even though compliance officers raised warnings about the sources of nearly $1.5 billion that was processed through the bank. Investigative reporting revealed that at least $900 million came from shell companies linked to alleged criminal networks. HSBC did these actions even though it was under probation by the U.S. for its past role in money laundering on behalf of criminal syndicates.[24]
The FinCEN files also revealed that HSBC moved suspect money from Russia.[25]
HSBC Bank works withOneSpan to issuemulti-factor authentication tokens for online banking services.[26]
HSBC Bank USA had the naming rights for the hockey arena that houses theBuffalo Sabres, known as HSBC Arena from 1999 to 2011 when it rebranded Marine Midland. After HSBC sold off its upstate New York branches in 2011, that arena was rebranded to FirstNiagara Center before renaming toKeyBank Center in 2016 after KeyBank merged with FirstNiagara.HSBC also sponsored many airports, with their logo displayed on many jet bridges. They started sponsoring New York’sJohn F. Kennedy International Airport in 2006, which lasted until September 2022, when their naming rights expired.American Express now has naming rights to jet bridges in terminals 1 and 4.
In 2010, HSBC was rated the worst in customer advocacy by Forrester Research, which asked bank customers to rank their banks. In the national survey of approximately 4,500 banking customers assessing the top 50 banks, in answer to the question: "My financial provider does what’s best for me, not just its own bottom line," HSBC set a new all-time low with a 16% rating, 10% below the previous year.[27]
In 2012, the U.S. government uncovered a "blatant failure to implement proper anti-money laundering controls facilitat[ing] the laundering of at least $881 million in drug proceeds through the U.S. financial system".[23]
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