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Today's edit by @Boubloub removed "British" from the opening sentence of this article; the new text says HSBC is a bank "with a uniquely multinational footprint." I sympathize with the edit for two reasons. Firstly, I deplore nationalism and the tendency to put a national label on everything, and Wikipedia needs to guard against that as part of WP:NPOV. Secondly, I agree that HSBC is not a British bank in one obvious sense: a bank that primarily serves customers in the United Kingdom. It has a distinctive history as a British-owned bank primarily serving customers in Asia, and the new language is a good attempt to capture that. However, now the only reference to its Britishness is in the wikilinked "British Hong Kong". I think that misses an important aspect of the bank's culture and decision-making. Firstly, it is easy to find recent RSs referring to it as a "British bank".[1][2]. Secondly, the senior management has remained British throughout its time in Asia, in common with other British hongs. Thirdly, as a section lower down mentions briefly, in the early 1990s the bank moved its head office to London, added substantial operations in the UK, and rebranded from "Hongkong Bank" to "HSBC" in light of the impending return of Hong Kong to China rule. Other Hong Kong banks did not do this. Put crudely, when the British governing élite left Hong Kong, so did HSBC's British élite. I also think the new language does not fully capture the depth of the company's Asian inheritance: while it has a global footprint, its Chinese heritage is also part of its culture. This probably doesn't matter in the slightest if you're an HSBC bank clerk in Boston or Brasilia, but it's still a unique important market for the bank, as discussed in the Reuters source. So I would like to seek consensus for a revised opening sentence. Matt's talk12:11, 27 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Many thanks for this thoughtful feedback. I have amended the lead section accordingly. I plan to make further clarifying changes later on in the history section. Boubloub (talk) 13:03, 27 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for the constructive discussion. I think the new wording is adequate to address the concerns I raised. I will enjoy reading the rewritten history sections. Matt's talk20:33, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
level-5 vital article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
