{"id":110220,"date":"2026-08-24T23:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T23:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/110220\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T23:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T23:09:09","slug":"dont-raid-our-banks-hsbc-boss-tells-burnham-windfall-tax-would-damage-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/110220\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t raid our banks, HSBC boss tells Burnham: Windfall tax would damage growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

By PATRICK TOOHER, CONSULTANT CITY EDITOR<\/a> <\/p>\n

Updated: 22:01 BST, 4 August 2026 <\/p>\n

The boss of Britain\u2019s biggest quoted company has urged Andy Burnham not to impose a windfall tax on banks.<\/p>\n

HSBC chief executive Georges Elhedery warned the Prime Minister that the economy would be hit if the banking sector faced the extra levy that some campaigners have demanded.<\/p>\n

\u2018Growth requires strong banks,\u2019 Elhedery said as he unveiled a 23\u00a0per cent rise in profits to \u00a314.5billion in the first half of the year, helped by \u2018strong growth\u2019 in HSBC\u2019s wealth management unit in Asia.<\/p>\n

The bank also revealed that profits in its UK arm had grown by 7.7\u00a0per cent to \u00a32.9billion.<\/p>\n

\u2018For growth to manifest, you need businesses to be confident and invest,\u2019 Elhedery said.<\/p>\n

\u2018For businesses to invest, you need them to have access to financing. And banks are the preferred financing mechanism for these businesses,\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n

\"Asia <\/p>\n

Asia profits: HSBC chief exec Georges Elhedery, pictured, warned the Prime Minister that the economy would be hit if an extra levy was imposed on the sector\u00a0<\/p>\n

The comments echo those made by NatWest boss Paul Thwaite last week, who called for \u2018consistency of policies so businesses can plan\u2019.<\/p>\n

Banks pay a 3\u00a0per cent surcharge on top of the standard 25\u00a0per cent corporation tax rate following a cut in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Restoring the levy to 8\u00a0per cent would raise \u00a39billion over four years, according to the Trades Union Congress, which is pushing for higher bank taxes.<\/p>\n

Lenders have gained from higher-for-longer interest rates<\/a> that have boosted their net interest income \u2013 the difference between what they pay savers and charge borrowers.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Lebanon-born Elhedery described the economy as \u2018outstandingly resilient\u2019, despite \u2018all the challenges we\u2019ve seen lately\u2019, notably the Middle East conflict, which has sent energy prices sky-rocketing.<\/p>\n

He added: \u2018The UK remains a very attractive international investment hub and we continue to see foreign direct investment in the UK creating jobs, in all parts.\u2019<\/p>\n

Elhedery swerved suggestions that HSBC might review its commitment to its London headquarters if banks faced higher taxes, and highlighted the bank\u2019s lending across the country.<\/p>\n

\u2018More than 60\u00a0per cent of our loan portfolio is to businesses outside of London and the South East,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

HSBC has substantial operations in Edinburgh, Swansea, Leeds, Sheffield and Chester, while its retail bank headquarters is in Birmingham.<\/p>\n

But the bulk of the bank\u2019s activities are in Asia, especially in Hong Kong and China, which account for over two-thirds of its profits.<\/p>\n

HSBC also announced that it would resume its $1billion share buyback scheme after pausing it late last year following its takeover of Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng Bank.<\/p>\n

The bank is also considering boosting its bonus pool for bankers after a cap on their bonuses was lifted.<\/p>\n

Elhedery said the bank had exited 15 non-strategic businesses since 2025, most recently selling its Singapore insurance arm to Germany\u2019s Allianz.<\/p>\n

HSBC shares fell yesterday by 0.8 per cent, or 12.8p, to 1584.6p, having risen more than 70\u00a0per cent in the past 12 months.<\/p>\n

Analysts expect HSBC and the four other big UK-based banks \u2013 Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays and Standard Chartered \u2013 to rack up profits this year of more than \u00a360billion.<\/p>\n

DIY INVESTING PLATFORMS\"EasyAJ Bell\"EasyAJ Bell<\/p>\n

Easy investing and ready-made portfolios<\/p>\n

\"FreeHargreaves Lansdown\"FreeHargreaves Lansdown<\/p>\n

Free fund dealing and investment ideas<\/p>\n

\"Flat-feeinteractive investor\"Flat-feeinteractive investor<\/p>\n

Flat-fee investing from \u00a34.99 per month<\/p>\n

\"InvestingFreetrade\"InvestingFreetrade<\/p>\n

Investing Isa now free on basic plan<\/p>\n

\"FreeTrading 212\"FreeTrading 212<\/p>\n

Free share dealing and no account fee<\/p>\n

Affiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.<\/p>\n

Compare the best investing account for you <\/a><\/p>\n

Share or comment on this article:
\n Don’t raid our banks, HSBC boss tells Burnham: Windfall tax would damage growth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By PATRICK TOOHER, CONSULTANT CITY EDITOR Updated: 22:01 BST, 4 August 2026 The boss of Britain\u2019s biggest quoted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20667],"tags":[9881,253,1097,1096],"class_list":["post-110220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hsbc","tag-hsbc","tag-money","tag-moneymarkets","tag-thisismoney"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117153009905402887","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}