Our timeline

Discover the bank's origins and its development into one of the world’s largest financial services organisations.

Explore the five eras below to uncover over 160 years of great stories.

Explore the Eras

Era 1: 1865 - 1899

Foundation and branching out

Era 2: 1900 - 1949

Growth and challenges

Era 3: 1950 - 1979

New opportunities

Era 4: 1980 - 1999

Global reach

Era 5: 2000 - Now

A new century

1865 - Established in Hong Kong

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) opens for business in Hong Kong on 3 March 1865. We are owned and managed locally, and able to respond to local business needs more quickly than our competitors with their overseas headquarters. Our directors include merchants from around the world, giving us a strong global outlook. Investors quickly snap up the HKD250 shares to raise a founding capital of HKD5 million. Offices also open in Shanghai (April) and London (July).

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1865 - Established in Hong Kong

A landscape oil painting of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour. Numerous boats are in the foreground on the water. In the background is the city of Hong Kong, on the harbour and nestled into the visible mountains.

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Oil painting depicting Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour in the 1860s

A black and white photograph of the Hong Kong harbour. Boats are docked on the river and British colonial-style buildings line the harbour.

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Our first head office, Wardley House (centre), located at 1 Queen's Road on the waterfront of Hong Kong's Central district

A colourised portrait of a near retirement-aged Thomas Sutherland, founder of HSBC.

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Our founder, Thomas Sutherland, is a dynamic young Scotsman aged just 30. He spots the gap in the market for a local bank with international reach

Putting down global roots

A tour of Hong Kong, 1873

1866 - Yokohama branch opens

Trade finance is our core business. We follow the flow of commerce and expand rapidly across Asia, opening a branch in the busy port of Yokohama in 1866. Additional branches include Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1867, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in 1870, and Manila in 1875. We also issue banknotes in key markets to stimulate and accelerate trade.

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1866 - Yokohama branch opens

An 1870 HSBC banknote. A red stamp of Japanese letters appears on the left and right side. Design consists of a large rectangle containing thick borders with Japanese letters and the word, Yokohoma, in English. A circular symbols sits in each corner. In the centre sits the bank crest, containing a harbour scene, flanked by the words $50 on the left and the right.

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An early HSBC banknote, issued in Yokohama in 1870

A black and white photograph of the staff of the Manila HSBC branch in 1885. Local staff dress in white and wear local formal attire. International staff wear white Western-style suits. Staff stand in front of the building, in the entrance doorway and the first floor window of the building. A horse and buggy is parked near the entrance.

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Manila staff standing in front of their branch in 1885

A sepia photograph of the local and international staff of the HSBC Bombay branch in 1869, formally posed in a group picture. Young boys sit in front of international staff, who wear western-style suits. Local staff wear a mixture of local traditional attire or western-style suits. Nearly all local staff wear a hat or turban.

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Staff at our Bombay (Mumbai) branch, which opened in 1869

Putting down global roots

Tools of the trade

1874 - China's first public loan

We issue China’s first public loan in 1874 in Foochow (Fuzhou) and quickly develop a strong reputation for government and municipal loans in Asia. These loans finance key infrastructure such as railway construction and waterworks. We also act as banker to the government of Hong Kong and handle British government accounts in China, Japan, Penang and Singapore.

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1874 - China's first public loan

A black and white photograph of the local and international staff of the Foochow branch in 1887 in a formal group pose. International staff are sat in the front row, wearing traditional Western-style suits. Local staff are sat and standing in rows, wearing traditional Chinese dress.

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Our Foochow (Fuzhou) staff in 1887

A handwritten parchment paper document of an 'article of agreement'. The document contains English text on the left and Chinese writing on the right. The agreement is between Chang Chi Tung and Thomas Jackson, both names clearly legible.

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An article of agreement between our Chief Manager and Chang Chi Tung, Viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi. It relates to a loan of more than HKD1.5 million made to the Chinese government in 1884

A extracted close-up of a Chinese Imperial Government railway bond. Two rectangular stamp seals are shown, one black and one red. The black seal is the signature and seal of the Director General of the Tientsin-Pukow Railway. The red stamp is the seal and signature of the Chinese Minister of London and a Chinese symbol and the name 'Li Chingfong' is handwritten over it in English.

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Extract from a Chinese Imperial Government railway bond

1880 - New York City branch opens

We open a new branch on Wall Street in New York City, five years after opening in San Francisco (pictured). US-China trade is accelerating rapidly thanks to improved shipping services. We also open in France (1881) and Germany (1889). These offices link up with our branches in Asia to power global connectivity for our clients.

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1880 - New York City branch opens

A black and white photograph of a busy Montgomery Street in 1865 San Francisco. Buildings line the street and pedestrians walk along the pavement. Horses pulling open-seated buggies are on the sides of the road. Covered carriages move along the middle of the road. The HSBC office is located in the centre of the buildings, next to Selleck's Photographic Gallery.

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Montgomery Street in San Francisco, with HSBC's office located on the junction in the centre of the photograph

A closeup of a red label with embossed golden letters. Text reads: H and SBC, register of bills remitted to Lyons and Hamburg

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Label from a register of bills containing details of imports to Lyon and Hamburg

A closeup vignette from a $5 Chefoo banknote from 1922. Illustration is of a silk weaver making silk.

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We open in Lyon rather than Paris, because Lyon is the largest importer of raw silk in Europe, and we have clients at both ends of the trade route. Silk is a central commodity at this time, as reflected in this illustration of a silk weaver from one of our banknotes issued in Chefoo (Yantai)

Banking in the Big Apple

A tale of two cities: Lyon and Hamburg

1886 - First purpose-built head office

We outgrow our Wardley House premises at 1 Queen’s Road Central and replace it with our first tailor-made head office (pictured, centre). The construction project is the largest ever undertaken in Hong Kong and the new building features modern conveniences such as gas lighting and lifts.

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1886 - First purpose-built head office

A sepia photograph of the harbour view of Hong Kong with the head office in the centre. The head office is a four-story building in Victorian-style. Boats are docked on the water and hills of the Peak are in the background.

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The elegant harbour-facing side of our new Hong Kong head office (centre)

A black and white postcard showing two views of the Hong Kong head office. On the left is the Des Voeux Road view, which shows the waterfront facing side. On the right is the Queen's Road view, showing the corner of the building with a large dome on top. An illustrated palm tree is centred between the two images.

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Postcard showing the distinct architecture of the Queen's Road and Des Voeux Road entrances of our 1886 head office

A black and white photograph of the banking hall of the Hong Kong head office building. Customer counters are in the foreground. A large wooden desk is featured in centre with counters throughout the rest of the hall. High ceilings are framed by arches and columns. Wooden treatments decorate the windows.

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View of the ornate banking hall of the new head office building, showing a customer counter and the staff desk behind