British banking giant HSBC may consider moving its headquarters from London after the regulatory environment becomes clearer, observed the bank’s chairman Douglas Flint.
According to Bloomberg, Flint in a shareholder meeting in Hong Kong said: "We are beginning to see the final shape of regulation, the final shape of structural reform and as soon as that mist lifts sufficiently, we will once again start to look at where the best place for HSBC is."
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HSBC has faced calls from shareholders to shift its domicile away from the British capital after the government increased the levy on bank’s balance sheets for an eighth time since 2010.
The European lender has paid £750m in bank levy taxes in 2014, the most of any UK bank.
Standard Chartered, another bank headquartered in London, has also been facing questions from shareholders for moving outside UK.
Old Mutual Global Investors head of equities Richard Buxton told Reuters: "There is a very clear risk that HSBC and StanChart reach a pain threshold where they think it is no longer worth staying in the UK."
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