In the case of Ms. Meng Wanzhou of Huawei being detained in Canada, HSBC provided the only so-called key evidence and played a very disgraceful role. Now, in order to save themselves from possible losses in the future, HSBC executives have lobbied the British government not to ban the use of Huawei's 5G equipment. So leaving aside whether the UK will adopt it, how big is the impact of HSBC? What is its status in the UK?

The full name of HSBC is The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited. Although its name includes Shanghai and Hong Kong, it is an out-and-out British company. Not only is its headquarters located in the UK, but its previous controllers are also British. Historically, Britain was once a world industrial power and the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. However, after two world wars, Britain's industrial strength declined sharply. The remaining wealth is mainly in the financial industry, including banking, insurance, futures and other businesses. In the financial industry, banks are the top priority. The four largest banks in the UK currently include HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland. Although these banks have a long history, the only world-class bank in the UK is HSBC. Barclays is mainly concentrated in the UK and the United States, and Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland are mainly limited to the UK.

First of all, from the perspective of scale, HSBC is the second largest company in the UK, second only to BP (British Petroleum), but HSBC has a total of 235,000 employees, far exceeding BP’s 73,000 people. We know that there are many large companies in the UK, including Vodafone, etc., and some companies have been acquired by foreign capital or have dual headquarters, such as Tesco, Unilever, etc. Among the multinational companies headquartered in the UK, HSBC Holdings has created more job opportunities Second to none.

Looking at the four major banks, HSBC’s turnover reached US$86.1 billion in 2018, which is almost the same size as Barclays, Lloyds, and Royal Bank of Scotland combined. In terms of profits, HSBC's net profit reached US$13.72 billion, while Barclays's was US$2.86 billion, and Lloyd's was US$5.74 billion. The profits of HSBC alone far exceeded the sum of the other three. The net profit of US$13.7 billion can also rank first among all British companies. For example, BP's net profit is US$9.3 billion and Unilever's net profit is US$11 billion, both of which are far behind HSBC Group.

According to data from the third quarter of 2019, HSBC’s total assets reached 2.2 trillion pounds, equivalent to approximately 2.7 trillion U.S. dollars, which is almost the same as the total economic volume of the United Kingdom (2.83 trillion U.S. dollars). At such a scale, it is no longer as simple as a bank. As we all know, London is one of the two major financial centers in the world, and the financial industry, as a pillar industry in the UK, plays a self-evident role in the British national economy. In terms of the influence of HSBC, to a certain extent, HSBC is the UK symbol.