HSBC Reportedly Weighing Sale of Australian Retail Banking Unit

HSBC is reportedly considering a sale of its Australian consumer banking operation.

That’s one of the options before the British banking giant as it tries to pare down its business, Bloomberg News reported Monday (Jan. 20), citing sources with knowledge of the matter.

One of those sources said HSBC is likely to hold onto its commercial banking unit in Australia to continue serving corporate clients around the world. The retail banking business — made up of 40 branches and offices throughout Australia — could potentially attract other lenders around the country, the source added.

A spokesperson for HSBC declined to comment when reached by PYMNTS.

Under new CEO Georges Elhedery, HSBC has been conducting a massive overhaul of its businesses. For example, last month saw a report that the bank was considering scaling back its retail operations in countries including Mexico, Malaysia and Indonesia to focus more on its core markets, which are the United Kingdom and Hong Kong.

HSBC has already announced job cuts that it says would deliver yearly savings of $500 million, and recently appointed the senior leadership teams across the four key businesses through which its new structure will operate.

“The new structure will ensure we can better focus on the businesses where we have clear competitive advantage and the greatest opportunities to grow — and will help us to deliver best-in-class products and service excellence to our customers,” Elhedery said in the release at the time.

News of the bank’s apparent plans for Australia come on the heels of a similar effort by Santander, with reports this weekend that the Spanish bank was considering exiting the U.K.

However, a spokesperson for the bank told PYMNTS that Great Britain “is a core market for Santander and that has not changed.”

In other banking news, PYMNTS on Monday examined the financial sector’s transition as new U.S. consumer account openings reach record levels. The industry has begun moving from simple transactions “to a more complex, interconnected ecosystem known as money mobility where funds flow seamlessly between accounts through a network of banks, FinTechs, and technology providers.”

According to PYMNTS Intelligence’s “The Modern Money Mobility Ecosystem,” the spike in consumer demand for a range of financial services — evidenced by the 200 million new accounts opened last year reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — has cued up a major change in how funds move across accounts.

“This development allows businesses to strengthen customer relationships through instant payouts, virtual accounts and seamless integrations that are redefining the payments and financial services landscape,” PYMNTS wrote.