Acknowledgements THIS BOOK COULD NOT have been researched and written without the generous help of many people, and we apologise for any names inadvertently omitted.
Frank King, the bank’s previous historian, sadly died in December 2012, but in the course of conversations he could not have been more encouraging. We also made use of the research materials he had collected as part of the previous history project.
The History Committee had oversight of this project with twice-yearly meetings that were always constructive, and we are grateful to those who attended: Stephen Green, Douglas Flint, David Shaw, Michael Broadbent, Edwin Green and Sara Kinsey.
The following kindly gave up their time to share their memories and thoughts about HSBC: Paula Aamli, Jonathan Addis, Ann Almeida, Emilson Alonso, Piraye Antika, Roberta Arena, Bernard Asher, Samir Assaf, Jon Bain, David Baker, Clive Bannister, Anthony Bernbaum, Rakesh Bhatia, Sir John Bond, Niall Booker, Steve Bottomley, Nic Boyde, Peter Boyles, Michael Broadbent, Alastair Bryce, Simon Burrows, Robert Butcher, Ian Carter, Zed Cama, George Cardona, Lena Chan, Nixon Chan, Vincent Cheng, Susanna Cheung, Jim Cleave, Denys Connolly, Rumi Contractor, John Coverdale, Bill Dalton, Charles de Croisset, John DeLuca, Manuel Diaz, Andrew Dixon, Baroness Dunn, David Eldon, Charles-Henri Filippi, Bruce Fletcher, Douglas Flint, John Flint, Sandy Flockhart, Mervyn Fong, Lord Foster, Frank Frame, Joe Garner, Michael Geoghegan, Martin Glynn, Lindsay Gordon, John Gray, Lord Green, Stuart Gulliver, Richard Hale, David Hall, Keith Harris, Guy Harvey-Samuel, Gareth Hewett, David Hodgkinson, Alex Hungate, Mary Jo Jacobi, Y. C. Jao, David Jaques, Alan Jebson, Dyfrig John, Alan Keir, Sir John Kemp-Welch, Naina Kidwai, Kah Yeok Koh, Jennings Ku, Chi Kwan Lam, Christopher Langley, Paul Lawrence, Frank Lawson, Elton Lee, Hock Lye Lee, Richard Lee, Margaret Leung, Rachida Lievre, Antonio Losada, Brendan McDonagh, Sir Kit McMahon, Vincent Mancuso, Simon Martin, Aman Mehta, Charles Mitschow, Marc Moses, Stephen Moss, Roy Munden, Youssef Nasr, Hugh O’Brien, Tim O’Brien, Raymond Or, Richard Orgill, Sir Brian Pearse, John Perry, Robin Phillips, Sir William Purves, Philip Farrugia Randon, Connal Rankin, Brian Robertson, Leigh Robertson, John Root, Mohamed Ross, Anthony Russell, Alison Rutherford, Lord Sandberg, Himanshu Sanwalka, Guy Sayer, Mike Scales, Paul Selway-Swift, David Shaw, Antonio Simoes, Baldev Singh, Dorothy Sit, Mark Smith, Michael Smith, Helmut Sohmen, Christopher Spooner, John Strickland, Peter Stringham, John Studzinski, Francis Sullivan, Robert Tennant, Paul Thurston, Tom Tobin, Philip Toohey, Shaun Wallis, Sir Peter Walters, Eddie Wang, Tom Welsh, Kevin Westley, Sir Keith Whitson, Helen Wong, Kathy Wong, Monica Wong, Peter Wong, Peter Wrangham, Joseph Yam, Tony Yap, Toong Fatt Yeong, Dicky Yip, Richard Yorke.
John Riga in Buffalo; Jocelyn Endean, Daisy So, Agatha Hui and Gaskell Wan in Hong Kong; Doreen Huan and Elizabeth Wee in Kuala Lumpur; Henry Compant La Fontaine and Gilberte Lombard in Paris; Sylvia Ng, Rebecca Leung and Daryl Ngan in Shanghai; and Richard Hale in Singapore all helped to facilitate research visits and make us feel welcome. In company secretaries’ offices across the Group, we received valuable assistance from Ralph Barber and Philippa Casey at HSBC Holdings, from John McKenzie and Roger Lewis at HSBC Bank plc, from Lily Zhou and Fred Xue at HSBC China, from Genevieve Penin at HSBC France and from Paul Stafford at The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, as we also did in the Group Chairman’s office from Sara Dare and Sara Brewer (to whom particular thanks for her meticulous keeping of John Bond’s records while he was chairman). Patricia Whetnall helped with access to Lord Sandberg and his papers. In London, we consulted the records of the Bank of England, thanks to the archivist Sarah Millard, and also used its information centre, thanks to Kath Begley. In Hong Kong we consulted the records of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, as well as enjoying access to the library at Hong Kong University, thanks to Anita Pun and Ruth Yang. Anders Mikkelsen provided research support to Richard Roberts, and Amanda Howard (Superscript Editorial Services) conscientiously typed up David Kynaston’s tapes.
We are grateful to have had access to private papers and memoirs by three significant HSBC figures: John Bond, Frank Frame and Michael Sandberg.
The bedrock of this book has been HSBC’s extensive and wonderfully maintained Archives, looked after by a dedicated team. During the project that team has included Tina Staples (Group Archivist), Claire Twinn, James Mortlock, Josephine Haining, Daniel Heather, Katie Keys, Morgan Parkin, Dean Annison, Kirsty McCloskey, Adele Tamar, Lauren England, Hermione Isaac and Georgina Orgill in London; Helen Swinnerton, Matthew Edmondson, Thomas Warren, Valerie Wong and Muriel Yeung in Hong Kong (we owe a particular debt to Helen Swinnerton, who masterminded our trips, and to Matthew Edmondson, ever-resourceful in locating valuable papers); Stephanie Billonneau in Paris; and Mollie Brumbaugh and Kyle Conner in Chicago.
We are fortunate to have had knowledgeable, well-disposed readers who have generously looked at all or part of our drafts and responded to them in a very helpful, remarkably objective way. We are grateful to Sir John Bond, Michael Broadbent, Baroness Dunn, Douglas Flint, Michael Geoghegan, Edwin Green, Lord Green, Stuart Gulliver, Sir William Purves, David Shaw, Sir Keith Whitson and Peter Wong. We are also grateful to David Shaw for his valued assistance in resolving any potential legal issues.
We are fortunate too to have been published by Profile and would like especially to thank Paul Forty, Andrew Franklin and Penny Daniel. We are also grateful to Jane Robertson for her scrupulous copy-editing, to Steve Cox for his careful proofreading and to Diana LeCore for her index.
We would like to give special thanks to five HSBC people: to Edwin Green, the former Group Archivist, whose original idea the book was and who has always been an infinitely supportive friend to business historians; to Rachael Porter, for her imaginative work in finding all the images for the book; to Julia Cazin, who was the initial project archivist and who catalogued some 250 boxes of John Bond’s papers, a central resource; to Lorraine Bearwish, who transcribed many of the interviews (a huge task) and kept the History Committee minutes as well as generally looking after travel and administration; and above all to Sara Kinsey, our project manager, our main co-interviewer and our editor, in all of which roles she has kept us on track without compromising our independence and whose perceptive insights and extensive knowledge of the subject have greatly added value to our work.
The final thanks go to those who have lived most closely with the inevitable ups and downs of any long-term project: Richard’s wife Sarah, and David’s wife Lucy. We are grateful for your support and encouragement.
Richard Roberts & David Kynaston
June 2014