YOU spend 38 years at a mighty global bank, the last seven as chief executive. As boss you clean up a stinking mess, the legacy of ill-conceived acquisitions and shoddy practice. You shell out billions in fines and legal costs. You shed businesses and cut jobs by a quarter. You build a solid capital base. You maintain dividends. On your last day, you announce decent results, with revenue growing after five years of shrinkage and profits up nicely. The market’s parting gift to you? The share price falls by 3%.
当你在一家强大的全球银行工作38年，最后七年担任首席执行官，以老板的身份清理一团乱麻的烂摊子国解决前任留下的无脑收购和胡乱管理后果。还要付出数十亿的罚款和司法费用；要裁员四分之一；打下了扎实的资本基础；维持给股东分红。在你职业生涯的最后一天，宣布各项结果良好，在经历五年的收缩和利润增长后，收入增长势头良好。至于市场给你的离别礼物是什么呢？股价下跌了3%。
Analysts had expected better from Stuart Gulliver’s final report as boss of Britain’s HSBC, the world’s seventh-biggest bank by assets, on February 20th. They were surprised by charges for impaired loans to two companies, thought to be Carillion, a failed British contractor, and Steinhoff, a troubled South African retailer, and miffed that HSBC put off buying back more shares. That, the bank said, must wait until it has raised $5bn-7bn of “additional tier-1” capital (debt that switches to equity in a crisis).
2月20日，相对于英国汇丰银行CEO欧智华给出的最后的财报，市场分析师的预期更高。汇丰银行是全球资产规模第七大的银行。令人这些分析师感到意外的是，汇丰银行因两家企业贷款减值而遭罚款——这两家个来据信是破产的英国承包商Carillion和陷入困境的南非零售商斯坦霍夫。因此，他们对汇丰银行推迟回购更多股票感到恼火。汇丰银行表示，回购须等到筹集到50亿至70亿美元的“更多的一级”资本(在危机中转换为股本的债务)之后。
Nevertheless, the bank that Mr Gulliver hands over to John Flint, another HSBC lifer (28 years and counting), is in fair shape. The balance-sheet, at $2.5trn, is roughly as big as it was when he took over at the start of 2011. But it is safer. Risk-weighted assets (RWAs) have shrunk by more than 20%. The ratio of equity to RWAs, a key measure of capital strength, is a robust 14.5%. Investment banking, which accounted for half of profit in 2010, now contributes 28%, a bit less than retail banking and wealth management, the division Mr Flint used to run, and corporate banking.
尽管如此，欧智华交给另一位汇丰资深人士约翰·弗林特（至今在汇丰任职28年）的汇丰银行仍然运营良好，资产负债表规模为2.5万亿美元，与2011年初上任时的规模大致相当。可是，汇丰银行更为安全，风险加权资产缩水超过20%。作为衡量资本实力的一个关键指标，股本与风险加权资产的比率是强劲的14.5%。投资银行收入占2010年利润的一半，如今贡献了28%的利润，略低于零售银行和财富管理部门(弗林特此前掌管的部门)和对公银行业务。
Mr. Flint also inherits two other things. One is a bank freed of some long-standing legal snares. Most recently, in December a five-year-old deferred-prosecution agreement (DPA) with America’s Department of Justice, imposed after Mexican drug gangs laundered $881m through HSBC, expired and charges were dropped. The DPA had included a fine of $1.9bn and close, continuous monitoring by regulators.
弗林特还接手了另外两件事。一是汇丰银行摆脱了几个长期存在的法律陷阱。不久前，在2017年12月，与美国司法部达成了一项为期5年的延期起诉协议——这是针对墨西哥贩毒集团通过汇丰银行洗钱8.81亿美元——到期，同时起诉撤销了。延期起诉协议包括19亿美元的罚款，以及监管机构持续的密切监管。
The other is a big bet on Asia, where the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was born—in Hong Kong in 1865. In 2015 Mr. Gulliver announced among other things an investment in the Pearl River Delta, a Chinese economic hotspot. The bank has 24 teams supporting Chinese businesses abroad, 20 of them in cities along the routes of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructure plan that seeks to improve trade links. Asia already accounts for three-quarters of profits.
另一个是对亚洲的重点投入。汇丰银行于1865年在香港成立。2015年，欧智华宣布了对中国经济热点地区珠江三角洲的投资。汇丰银行有24个团队在全球支持中国企业，其中有20个团队是在中国“一带一路”倡议沿线的城市。“一带一路”是一项旨在改善贸易联系的基础设施计划。亚洲占到该行四分之三的利润。
With Mark Tucker, the newish chairman and a former head of AIA, a big Asian insurer, Mr. Flint is likely to follow Mr. Gulliver’s eastward course. Last year Mr Tucker succeeded Douglas Flint (no relation to John) with whom Mr Gulliver formed a successful double act.
随着新上任的董事长、亚洲大型保险公司友邦保险前总裁马克·塔克的到来，弗林特很可能会追随欧智华的东方路线。2017年，塔克接替道格拉斯·弗林特(与约翰无关)，并与欧智化形成了一种有利的双角色。
Mr. Flint has said he will lay out his plans in a few months. They may reflect a review of HSBC’s North American business, which accounts for 16% of assets but just 8% of profit, and which in 2007 gave out the first loud distress signal of the financial crisis, having seen subprime mortgages turn sour. Manus Costello of Autonomous, a research firm, thinks buying an asset manager would be wise. A wave of recent deals indicates the importance of scale in that business, in which he says HSBC ranks only 45th in the world.
弗林特曾表示会在几个月内制定计划，审核汇丰北美业务——占总资产的16%，却仅贡献8%利润。2007年，由于次级债出现问题，北美的业务发出了金融危机的第一个明显的危机信号。市场研究机构Autonomous的Manu Costello认为收购一家资产管理公司是明智的。最近的一系列交易表明规模在这一业务中的重要性。弗林特表示，汇丰在全球资产管理业务的排名仅为第45位。
The new boss has other work to do. HSBC’s legal woes are not entirely over. This week it noted that investigations into possible tax-dodging by clients, notably at its Swiss private bank, could yet entail penalties of $1.5bn or more. Also troubling is that return on equity, the banking industry’s main measure of profitability, is a mere 5.9%. Mr Gulliver had set a target of more than 10%, a mark last reached in 2011. Rising interest rates should at least put wind into Mr. Flint’s sails.
弗林特还有其他的工作要做。汇丰银行的司法危机还没有完全结束。本周，汇丰银行指出，针对客户(尤其是其在瑞士的私人银行)可能逃税的调查可能导致15亿美元或更多的罚款。同样令人不安的是，银行业衡量盈利能力的主要指标——股本回报率仅为5.9%。欧智华之前设定的目标是超过10%——上一次达到这个目标是在2011年。利率上升至少应该给弗林特带来好兆头。
编译：周小君&陈芳芳
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