Rumours of a sale align with London-headquartered banking giant’s recent actions
London-headquartered global banking giant HSBC is reportedly mulling a sale of its Australian retailing banking arm, according to an AFR report.
“Sources in the market” told the masthead that Citi has been appointed by HSBC to find a suitable buyer.
It wouldn’t be the first time a regional dissolution was on HSBC’s cards.
Powerful Chinese investor Ping an has been pushing for the London-listed multinational to hive off its sizeable Asian business, although this was rejected by a shareholder majority in 2023.
Nonetheless, HSBC has internally restructured its operations to clearly demarcate between Eastern and Western business segments.
While various news outlets reported that HSBC chief executive Georges Elhedery was contemplating the sale of its Australian business earlier this year, nothing has yet been confirmed.
How big is HSBC’s mortgage book?
HSBC Australia’s customer accounts totalled just shy of $32 billion in 2024 – a slight year-on-year decrease. It made a total of profit of $609 million in the 2024 financial year.
Per financial statements as of 31 December 2024, HSBC’s Australian subsidiary had a total mortgage lending book of $26.2 billion, reflecting a year-on-year increase of around 2.7%.
The vast majority of mortgages were residential, with an average LVR of 59.3%, suggesting a conservative approach to lending.
Investor loans comprised approximately 30% and interest-only loans making up 18% of the mortgage book – these figures were largely consistent with the prior year.
To put this into context, Commonwealth Bank’s home lending portfolio stood at $572 billion at the end of its 2024 financial year, representing 2.8% in year-on-year growth.
But while a minnow compared to Australia’s largest lender, and relatively small compared to second-tier lenders, HSBC loan book would make a sizeable addition to the likes of Bendigo & Adelaide Bank or AMP Bank.
Another of Australia’s Big Four banks, ANZ, has a high-profile HSBC alumnus in Nuno Matos, who joined ANZ as chief executive in May after spending more than 10 years as leader to various HSBC subsidiaries, the latest being its Wealth and Personal Banking segment.
ANZ has shown an acquisitive appetite of late, having completed its acquisition of regional player Suncorp Bank last year.
MPA has approached HSBC for a statement.
