UK Edition
HSBC has admitted it risks endangering human rights amid a strategic shift to Asia that has seen it side with Beijing on a crackdown in Hong Kong.
Freedom of speech and freedom from arbitrary arrest were among a host of human rights that an internal review found the FTSE 100 bank was at risk of undermining as a result of its business activities and relationships.
The admission marks the first time the London-headquartered company has acknowledged the impact its operations could have on human rights, following a pivot to Asia in recent years that has seen it publicly back an anti-democracy crackdown in Hong Kong.
The internal review identified five new human rights risks arising from HSBC’s operations and relationships, including: risks to freedom of opinion and expression; freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention or exile; and right to privacy.
It said: “These are the human rights at risk of the most severe potential negative impact through our business activities and relationships.”
A similar assessment carried out in 2021 only raised modern slavery and discrimination as areas of potential concern for the bank.
It comes as HSBC faces growing scrutiny of its activities in China and Hong Kong, where it has been accused by MPs of complicity in human rights abuses.
HSBC supported a Beijing-backed law introduced in 2020 that banned anti-government activity in the former British colony. At the time, the bank said it “respects and supports all laws that stabilise Hong Kong's social order”.
Hong Kong has plummeted down human rights league tables since the introduction of the national security law, with experts citing a suppression of freedom of expression and freedom from arbitrary arrest as areas of particular concern.
Since the law was introduced, HSBC has frozen the bank accounts of activists, including pro-democracy politician Ted Hui, on orders from Hong Kong police.
Its stance has drawn the ire of activists and politicians in the UK and US. Earlier this month, a group of MPs accused HSBC of being complicit in human rights abuses against Hong Kong citizens by siding with Xi Jinping’s communist regime and blocking pensions payouts for those who fled to Britain.
A parliamentary report claimed that HSBC blocked payments after saying entry documents provided by the British government to Hong Kong immigrants were not sufficient to unlock their savings.
The bank, which counts Hong Kong as its biggest market, has said repeatedly that it has to comply with laws in every jurisdiction where it operates.
Yet the updated review of HSBC's human rights risks, disclosed in its latest annual report, highlights the hazardous position it finds itself in after turning its focus to Hong Kong and mainland China in search of higher returns.
The bank said: “Identifying and regularly reviewing these risks helps us to validate and evolve our overall approach to human rights.”
HSBC's internal review also flagged the risk of undermining the freedom from forced labour; right to equality and freedom from discrimination; and cultural and land rights.
A spokesman for HSBC said: “We recognise the role of business in respecting human rights. Our approach has always been to work for the benefit of our customers and the societies of which they are part, while respecting local laws and customs, as well as our wider responsibilities to all our global stakeholders.”
Noel Quinn, HSBC’s chief executive, will next month travel to mainland China for the first time since the pandemic as he tries to fend off pressure from its biggest Chinese investor to break-up the business.