Future Finance

HSBC Built a Financial Fortress Around Hong Kong. Now It Faces Its Biggest Threat in Years

Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

HSBC Holdings Plc spent 150 years building a financial fortress around Hong Kong that touches nearly every aspect of life in the former British colony.

A pack of upstart virtual lenders, which barely existed two months ago, are going after that business. They’re backed by the likes of Standard Chartered Plc and Chinese internet insurer ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co.