HSBC completes set-up of £200bn ringfenced bank

HSBC has finished setting up its ringfenced bank, making it the latest of the UK’s largest lenders to complete the key post-financial crisis reform.

The bank yesterday said that it legally completed the complex move on Sunday, after it had received High Court approval on 21 May.

The bank holds over £200bn in assets and received its banking license from the PRA on 27 June, it said in a statement. The UK arm is wholly owned by the HSBC Holdings parent company, but it does have a separate board led by former London Stock Exchange chief executive Dame Clara Furse. The current chief executive is Ian Stuart, with David Watts as the finance boss.

Britain’s biggest banks were forced to split their operations in two by government after the global financial crisis, to protect retail and small business customers from the riskier activities of investment banks. The deadline for the switch is the beginning of 2019.

In total, the bank serves 14.5 million personal and business customers in the UK, including all retail customers at HSBC, M&S Bank and First Direct.

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