HSBC ‘will consider leaving UK again’

London – HSBC has once again raised the prospect of moving its headquarters out of the UK.

The bank, which was the subject of intense public anger earlier this year after details of how its Swiss arm had facilitated tax evasion emerged, yesterday said that it would soon reconsider the location of its head office.

“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” its chairman, Douglas Flint, said.

Flint, who as heavily criticised by MPs last month, made the comments at an informal shareholder meeting in Hong Kong, after an investor raised the issue of whether the bank should move.

Executives at HSBC have privately suggested that successive increases in the bank levy compel them to examine the costs and benefits issue of where they are located. The Chancellor increased the levy on UK banks’ balance sheets for an eighth time at the last month’s budget.

HSBC postponed a review a potential move of its headquarters out of London in 2012, saying that until the regulatory environment was clearer, a decision was impossible.