Risk Management Case Study

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HSBC, which has began as part of efforts to promote British imperial trade in opium, silk and tea in East Asia, was the UK’s largest banking company. It owned The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, France’s CCF, and 62% of Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Bank. HSBC had more than 8,000 offices in about 80 countries, providing consumer and business banking, asset management, investment banking, securities trading, insurance, and leasing services. US operations, which included HSBC USA and joint venture Wells Fargo HSBC Trade Bank, had been significantly expanded with the $15billion stock purchase of consumer lender Household International. Overview Credit risk was the possibility of loss due to the failure of a customer or counterparty to meet its obligations under a contract. HSBC had put in place various standards, policies and procedures to control and monitor such risks. Group Credit and Risk (GCR) managed credit risk in a centralized fashion for HSBC on a worldwide basis. GCR was headed by a Group General Manager (GGM) who reported to the Group Chief Executive. GCR’s responsibilities included the following: • Formulating high level credit policies with which all HSBC’s operating companies were required to comply while formulating their own detailed credit policies and procedures. • Establishing and maintaining HSBC’s large credit exposure policy. This policy imposed controls on all operating companies, over the maximum level of HSBC’s exposure to customers and customer groups and other risk concentrations. • Issuing lending guidelines to HSBC’s operating companies on the Group’s attitude towards and appetite for lending to, inter alia, specified market sectors, industries and products. • Undertaking an independent review and objective assessment of risk. GCR assessed all commercial non-bank credit facilities over designated limits originated by operating

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