HSBC in Qatar

Our services

Wealth and Personal Banking: We serve around 26,900 retail customers with a full range of personal financial products including wealth management (insurance, investment) products. With our global reach we open accounts for clients in different countries where HSBC offers offshore banking facilities.

Commercial Banking: We offer market leading products (Global Trade Solutions and Global Payments Solutions) to serve a customer base of 1,500 conglomerates, large family groups and middle market enterprises of which some have been banking with us for 70 years. Our unique global footprint supports International Subsidiary Banking clients in growing their businesses in Qatar.

Global Banking and Markets including Securities Services: Our team of professional bankers covers Multi-National Company accounts, State of Qatar accounts and Financial Institutions. The team specialises in capital financing, advisory services, and we are the largest international bank, custodian to c.95 per cent of foreign institutional investor assets, with a comprehensive investment banking platform.

Our history in the Middle East

Origins

HSBC’s presence in the Middle East dates back to 1889 when the bank was known as The Imperial Bank of Persia. The bank changed its name to The Imperial Bank of Iran in 1935; The British Bank of Iran and the Middle East in 1949 and subsequently The British Bank of the Middle East in 1952 when operations in Iran were wound up. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited acquired The British Bank of the Middle East in 1959.

Diversification

The 1940s was a period of great change with the decline of operations in Iran (which closed in 1952) and expansion into the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant.

The bank was a leader in financial services in the states that are now referred to as the Gulf Cooperation Council, opening branches in Kuwait (1942), Bahrain (1944), the area now known as the UAE (1946), Oman (Muscat 1948) and Saudi Arabia (Al Khobar and Jeddah 1950).

Branches were also opened in the cities of the Fertile Crescent: Beirut (1946), Damascus (1947), Tripoli (1948), Amman (1949) and Aleppo (1951).

Regional expansion

By 1959, when the bank was acquired by the Group, it had added more offices in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Libya, Qatar, Tunisia, Morocco and UAE.

During the 1960s and 1970s the bank left Syria, Iraq, South Yemen and Libya after nationalisation of the banking sectors.

In 1978, the bank’s business in Saudi Arabia was transferred to a new bank, the Saudi British Bank, where the Group took a 40 per cent share. The Group also took a 40 per cent share in the Hong Kong Egyptian Bank S.A.E, which was established in 1982.

Modern structure

In 1994, the bank's head office was transferred to Jersey and in 1999 it was renamed HSBC Bank Middle East (HBME). In 2001, the Group’s shareholding in Egypt increased to 94.5 per cent. In June 2016, the bank confirmed that it had transferred its place of incorporation and head office from Jersey to the Dubai International Financial Centre. As a result of the transfer, HBME is now lead-regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority, but remains locally regulated in each of the countries in which it operates by the country’s Central Bank and its other regulators.

Celebrating 70 years in Qatar

HSBC Group history timeline