HSBC chief executive Noel Quinn defended a number of positions during a committee meeting with British politicians including a decision to comply with orders from the Hong Kong police to close a self-exiled activist’s account.
HSBC's Noel Quinn spoke virtually in a meeting with the U.K.’s Foreign Affairs Committee which summoned the British lender’s global chief after former Hong Kong lawmaker and now self-exiled activist Ted Hui Chi-fung made public criticisms about blocking his account.
«I’m not in a position as a banker to be able to judge the motives or validity of that legal instruction from a law enforcement authority,» Quinn said.
«I’m not making a moral judgment. It’s not my position to make a moral or political judgment on these matters. I have to comply with the law.»
National Intelligence Law Reach
On the source of instructions to block Hui’s accounts, Quinn underlined that the bank had only been in discussions with local police and no other Chinese authorities.
HSBC’s group chief compliance officer, Colin Bell, also attended the virtual meeting and said he believed that China’s national intelligence law «has no extraterrestrial reach» outside the mainland.
Bell added that he would not provide information for U.K. bank accounts to China.
Hong Kong HQ
British members of parliament also questioned Quinn about the bank’s views on its Hong Kong headquarters and the possibility of relocation.
«Is there any point at which what is happening in a country where you are carrying out your banking activities is so awful and distasteful that you will consider withdrawing your business or taking some other actions?» asked Labor Party politician Graham Stringer.
«I am not in Hong Kong purely because of the profit,» Quinn replied, adding that HSBC had never considered the possibility. «It’s not a matter for me whether I chose China over the U.K. or China over another political system. My motive is 100 percent about helping people in Hong Kong recover from the challenges they face and I have to work within the legal framework I’m given in Hong Kong.»
NSL Support
Despite his claims that he was not positioned to make political judgement, he stood by HSBC’s decision to support the controversial national security law (NSL) which came into effect last year, adding that it was in hopes of ending unrest in Hong Kong.
And on Asia CEO Peter Wong’s public support of law, Quinn also reiterated similar comments.
«[Wong] was not advocating for a particular party or policy,» he said. “«It was not a political statement on his behalf. It was a statement that he was asking for the security situation in Hong Kong to be addressed, having experienced 18 months of progressive decline that culminated in an extended period of riots and violence.»
