DHAKA: UK banking giant HSBC has announced it is to keep its headquarters in London.

Concerns about stricter UK regulations led Europe’s biggest bank to launch a review into whether to move elsewhere, with Hong Kong seen as the most likely alternative.

But the bank said it had decided unanimously against the move and that London ‘offered the best outcome for our customers and shareholders’.

The decision was seen as a vote of confidence for the UK, reports the BBC.

The bank has had its headquarters in the UK since 1993 but makes most of its money overseas, and Asia accounts for the majority of its profit.

In a statement, HSBC said that London had an ‘internationally respected regulatory framework and legal system’ and added that it also was ‘home to a large pool of highly skilled, international talent’.

It was therefore ‘ideally positioned to be the home base for a global financial institution such as HSBC’.

Part of the review was considering whether the increased regulation of the banking industry in the UK - in particular the increased tax burden - warranted moving elsewhere.

But in the last Budget, the Chancellor George Osborne introduced a gradual reduction in the bank levy on balance sheets - a move which particularly affected HSBC, because of its large balance sheet.

In 2014 it paid £750m of the £1.9bn raised by the government through that particular tax.

BDST: 1250 HRS, FEB 15, 2016
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