HSBC says may leave UK

[scooterscot]

Q3 underlying pretax profit drops 36 pct to $3 bn

* U.S. bad debts jump as homeowners stop repaying mortgages

* Investment bank profits slump on rates, credit slowdown

* UK regulation may cost $2.5 bn/yr, may be "too high" to stay

* Shares fall 6 percent

HSBC gave its starkest warning to date that new regulations might force it to leave Britain and warned that problems in Europe had hurt growth elsewhere and created a "very challenging" global economy.

London's burning Mk II? What to know more?

[Mich the Tester]

Will any government ever have the guts to say to such an organisation 'off you go then'?

[doodab]

Will any government ever have the guts to say to such an organisation 'off you go then'?

I'll vote for them.

[Jeebo72]

Will any government ever have the guts to say to such an organisation 'off you go then'?

How stupid would that be. Go and join the stupid protests outside st pauls with the rest of the short sighted idiots.

[Mich the Tester]

How stupid would that be. Go and join the stupid protests outside st pauls with the rest of the short sighted idiots.

Usually I'd agree, but I also think it's dangerous for governments to be seen to bend over backward each time a large company threatens to leave; it's not the way to be taken seriously. As for the second half of your statement, you would seem to be overreacting to a question.

[doodab]

How stupid would that be. Go and join the stupid protests outside st pauls with the rest of the short sighted idiots.

Would it be more or less stupid than letting them continue to dictate regulatory policy? Bear in mind where their preferred form of "light touch self regulation" that has got us over the last 10 years or so.

[Mich the Tester]

Yup.

"Feck off & don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out" would work for me.

They might relocate to Hong Kong or Shanghai; of course, it can only be in a bank's shareholders' best interests to take HQ away from an established, stable democracy that hasn't defaulted in 300 years and has an attractive and stable tax regime, to the corrupt money playground of unelected communist party cronies in a country that is still run by the same people who brought you the Tianenmen Square massacre when the middle classes dared to express an opinion, and in fact has a long history of imprisoning people for having a functioning brain and starving millions of its own citizens. Yep, the People's Republic of China really is a great place to do business.

If that's how stupid, short sighted, and badly managed they really are, then good riddance.

[sasguru]

They might relocate to Hong Kong or Shanghai; of course, it can only be in a bank's shareholders' best interests to take HQ away from an established, stable democracy that hasn't defaulted in 300 years and has an attractive and stable tax regime, to the corrupt money playground of unelected communist party cronies in a country that is still run by the same people who brought you the Tianenmen Square massacre when the middle classes dared to express an opinion, and in fact has a long history of imprisoning people for having a functioning brain and starving millions of its own citizens. Yep, the People's Republic of China really is a great place to do business.

If that's how stupid, short sighted, and badly managed they really are, then good riddance.

It's all bluff and part of the lobbying currently going on.
Of course that is obvious to all except the unworldly, naive, moron who started this thread

[doodab]

It's all bluff and part of the lobbying currently going on.

Exactly, and it's high time it was called.

[DimPrawn]

They might relocate to Hong Kong or Shanghai; of course, it can only be in a bank's shareholders' best interests to take HQ away from an established, stable democracy that hasn't defaulted in 300 years and has an attractive and stable tax regime, to the corrupt money playground of unelected communist party cronies in a country that is still run by the same people who brought you the Tianenmen Square massacre when the middle classes dared to express an opinion, and in fact has a long history of imprisoning people for having a functioning brain and starving millions of its own citizens. Yep, the People's Republic of China really is a great place to do business.

If that's how stupid, short sighted, and badly managed they really are, then good riddance.

How stupid would it be for the The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia to move to Hong Kong or Shanghai. Ridiculous.