Political Audit: HSBC

Corporate Communications & Public Stance

HSBC issued a dedicated, dated public statement on Ukraine and Russia on 21 March 2022, committing to reduce Russia exposure, halt new business and customers, restrict payments, and highlighting donations to UNICEF and the ICRC ¹. No public evidence identified of an equivalent named, dated HSBC group statement addressing the Israel-Gaza war (October 2023–present) or Palestinian civilian harm.

HSBC nonetheless retained equity stakes in five major Russian oil and gas firms - Gazprom, Rosneft, Tatneft, Lukoil, and Novatek - after issuing its Ukraine statement, according to Bloomberg-sourced reporting ²; its Russian subsidiary sale was repeatedly delayed ³, and external monitors have tracked its exit status under the “Leave Russia” framework ⁴. This Russia conduct provides a direct internal comparator against which the bank’s Israel-Palestine communications can be assessed.

Group CEO Georges Elhedery, appointed in September 2024 ⁵, commented publicly on the Israel-Iran war in April 2026 in market and economic terms only, stating the bank was “saddened and concerned with what’s happening in the Middle East” and warning the conflict was denting “global confidence” and disrupting oil and LNG supply chains ⁶⁷⁸⁹. No public evidence identified of any equivalent statement by Elhedery or another HSBC group officer addressing Palestinian or Gazan civilian casualties, humanitarian conditions, or human-rights dimensions of the conflict, 2023–2026.

HSBC’s own explanation for its December 2018 divestment from Elbit Systems, delivered by then-chief legal officer Stuart Levey, framed the action as policy-driven rather than political, stating the decision was “based on our long-standing defense policy whereby we do not invest in companies linked to the production or marketing of cluster munitions” and “was not the result of campaigning by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and it is not indicative of support for the movement’s objectives” ¹⁰. Levey characterized the divested holding as approximately $600,000, or 0.01% of Elbit’s shares, and stated HSBC’s Tel Aviv branch would remain open ¹⁰.

In earlier reporting tied to the “Deadly Investments” campaign, HSBC stated it had “progressively withdrawn from financing the manufacture and sale of defence equipment” and described its policy as “one of the most restrictive in the financial services industry” ¹¹.

HSBC’s public materials on its 2023 “Innovation Banking” launch - built from the acquired Silicon Valley Bank UK business, with a dedicated Israel/Tel Aviv team - frame Israel as a “standard” high-growth technology and commercial market, aiming to “help Israel’s high-tech firms access new international opportunities,” with no reference to occupation, settlements, or conflict-related risk disclosure identified in the corporate materials reviewed ¹²¹³¹⁴.

Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories

HSBC formally entered the Palestinian market in 1998 and completely wound down its Ramallah-headquartered personal and commercial banking operations effective 31 December 2015, per customer notices dated 3 November 2015 and newspaper advertisements dated 5 November 2015 ¹⁵¹⁶. HSBC has had no direct retail or commercial presence in the Palestinian Territories since that wind-down.

In 2023, HSBC and Israel’s Bank Leumi arranged approximately $1.1 billion in financing for the Tel Aviv “Purple Line” light rail, a project contracted to Israel’s Shapir Group and Spain’s CAF ¹⁷¹⁸.

Following the March 2023 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, HSBC acquired SVB UK for £1 and rebranded it “HSBC Innovation Banking,” explicitly including a newly formed Israel team recruiting in Tel Aviv alongside US and Hong Kong teams to serve the Israeli technology and venture ecosystem after SVB’s collapse disrupted it ¹²¹³¹⁴.

The UN OHCHR database of business enterprises linked to Israeli settlement activity, maintained pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 31/36 and 53/25 and most recently updated in 2023 and again in September 2025, lists 158 companies, predominantly Israeli, with some UK-domiciled entries ¹⁹²⁰. No public evidence identified confirming HSBC’s inclusion on the OHCHR settlement-activity database specifically, as distinct from the financial-flows reports discussed below. No public evidence identified of an Al-Haq publication naming HSBC specifically in its Business and Human Rights work.

Amnesty International’s December 2024 business-enterprises-in-settlements report was reviewed and contained no mention of HSBC or named financial institutions in the extracted text ²¹. No public evidence identified that Amnesty’s broader “Israel’s Apartheid” framework document names HSBC.

The 2022 Don’t Buy Into Occupation (DBIO) report found HSBC among the ten companies providing the largest total in loans and underwriting to firms active in Israeli settlements, and separately identified HSBC - alongside Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, and Standard Chartered - among Booking.com’s biggest creditors, with Booking.com flagged for listing accommodations in Israeli settlements ²². The FIDH-hosted December 2023 DBIO report found HSBC to be the second-largest loan and underwriting provider, of 776 European financial institutions examined, to 51 companies “actively involved with Israeli settlements,” providing $14.21 billion in loans and underwriting between January 2020 and August 2023 - behind BNP Paribas’s $22.19 billion and ahead of Deutsche Bank’s $13.23 billion ²³. The November 2024 DBIO (“IV”) report again listed HSBC as providing financial services - shares, bonds, loans, and underwriting - to Elbit Systems, using data through September 2024, a period spanning the 19 July 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinion and immediately preceding the November 2024 ICC arrest warrants ²⁴²⁵. A November 2025 DBIO (“V”) report was subsequently published; its specific HSBC figures could not be extracted in this review and are flagged as a gap requiring manual verification ²⁶.

War on Want’s 2017 “Deadly Investments” report found HSBC held shares worth over £831 million in companies supplying Israel with arms and technology, including £180 million in BAE Systems (linked to F-16 target-selection displays) and £102 million in Boeing (linked to Apache helicopters and Hellfire missiles), plus participation in 15 syndicated loans totalling £19.3 billion, including to Rolls-Royce ²⁷²⁸²⁹. Broader reporting on European banks funnelling billions into companies operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories placed HSBC within this pattern of European financial-sector exposure ³⁰. Campaign Against Arms Trade’s August 2020 campaign materials alleged continuing HSBC financial support to BAE Systems, Raytheon, and Caterpillar, including £99.5 million in Caterpillar shares as of 2017, the latter cited over bulldozers used in demolitions of Palestinian property ³¹.

HSBC has been the subject of sustained, organized BDS-aligned campaigning since at least 2017, initiated by War on Want’s “Deadly Investments” report and joined by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, BDS Movement, and Campaign Against Arms Trade, on the grounds of HSBC’s shareholdings in and loans to companies supplying arms and equipment used against Palestinians ^2728323331. More than 24,000 people emailed HSBC and 40 UK branches were picketed monthly during the 2017–2018 campaign, with more than a quarter of AGM questions in at least one year concerning Palestinian human-rights complicity ^34323536. HSBC confirmed full divestment from Elbit Systems on 20 December 2018 following this campaign ^{3734383940104142}. HSBC subsequently re-acquired Elbit Systems shares, reported held again by September 2020 and listed as an Elbit financial-services provider in the 2024 DBIO report ²⁴²⁵.

A new direct-action campaign group, “People Against Genocide,” began a coordinated campaign of actions against HSBC branches from at least December 2025, citing HSBC’s renewed Elbit Systems shareholding of 16,317 shares, valued at approximately $8.3 million as of November 2025 ⁴³. On 12–13 December 2025, actions involving broken windows and red paint were reported at 11 branches, including Catford, Lewisham, Ilford, Tottenham Court Road, Fulham, Birmingham, Wokingham, Brighton, Newcastle, Edinburgh, and Glasgow ^4443454647. Activist-press reporting datelined May 2026, corroborated only by a social-media post and not by wire or financial press, states HSBC reduced its Elbit holding by over 96% in March 2026 (to 651 shares) and disposed of the remainder by 30 April 2026, attributing the move to the direct-action campaign; this claim carries a reliability flag and is unverified/developing as of the current date ⁴⁴⁴⁸. Further coverage documented HSBC AGM protests and nationwide branch demonstrations over Israeli arms financing ³⁶⁴⁹⁵⁰. No public evidence identified of any organized boycott or divestment campaign against HSBC grounded specifically in its operations inside Israel proper, such as its Tel Aviv branch or Innovation Banking unit; the campaigns identified are grounded exclusively in HSBC’s financial relationships with third-party arms and equipment suppliers.

Internal Governance, Content & Retail Policies

No public evidence identified of HSBC-specific HR action, suspension, or dismissal of staff over pro-Palestinian speech, symbols, or union activity. No public evidence identified of algorithmic moderation or editorial-stance findings specific to HSBC, as the bank is not a content or social-media platform. No public evidence identified of HSBC involvement in product labeling or sourcing disputes regarding settlement-origin goods.

HSBC announced in April 2020 that it would stop processing standing-order payments to Interpal, the Palestinian Relief and Development Fund, effective 17 May 2020, giving no public reason beyond stating that “as part of a global bank, sometimes we may decide to prevent certain transactions, even if they are allowed under local laws” ^51525354. Cross-party UK members of parliament condemned the move: Conservative MP Crispin Blunt called it “a decision of such appalling moral cowardice, that it should shame the decision-makers,” while Labour’s Andrew Slaughter and Wayne David and Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey also criticized it ⁵¹. Interpal itself called the move an “awful, inhumane and unlawful act” ⁵⁵. UK Lawyers for Israel claimed credit for the outcome, stating that Interpal’s “loss of banking facilities followed letters from UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) to banks and other financial service providers,” citing Interpal’s 2003 US Treasury terror designation, which has not been adopted by the UK, EU, or UN ⁵⁶.

Brand Heritage & State Partnerships

No public evidence identified that HSBC uses military heritage, defense-sector ties, or state-security origins in its commercial branding. HSBC’s 2023 co-financing, with Bank Leumi, of the Tel Aviv Purple Line light rail - a project of Israel’s state transit authority - constitutes financing support for Israeli state infrastructure, though the light rail itself operates within Israel proper rather than in occupied territory according to the sources reviewed ¹⁷¹⁸. No public evidence identified of HSBC hosting Israeli government officials, formally sponsoring Israeli state cultural or public-relations campaigns such as “Brand Israel,” or maintaining academic-institutional partnerships with Israeli state bodies tied to the conflict.

Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics

HSBC Holdings reported US lobbying expenditure of $1,977,000 in 2024 and PAC-linked federal contributions of $270,236 in the 2024 cycle, per OpenSecrets, with HSBC North America’s PAC giving $61,000 to federal candidates in the 2021–2022 cycle ⁵⁷⁵⁸⁵⁹. No public evidence identified linking any specific HSBC lobbying disclosure, PAC expenditure, or UK lobbying-register filing to Israel/Palestine policy, BDS-related trade legislation, or anti-boycott legislation specifically. No public evidence identified of HSBC or named executives holding leadership roles in pro-Israel advocacy or pressure organizations, or in anti-BDS lobbying coalitions. No public evidence identified of direct HSBC corporate donations to the IDF, FIDF, JNF/KKL, Lev Echad, Israeli reservist funds, settlement organizations, Regavim, or Im Tirtzu. No public evidence identified of HSBC directing free services, cloud credits, logistics, or infrastructure to Israeli state, military, or state-aligned NGOs during the active conflict period of 2023–2026; sector-wide fee-waiver and relief programs for IDF reservists coordinated by the Bank of Israel have been documented for retail banks such as Bank Hapoalim and Bank of Jerusalem, but HSBC Israel operates a corporate and institutional, non-retail banking model, and no HSBC-specific participation in this relief program was located.

Corporate Structure & Primary Mission

HSBC Holdings plc is a UK-incorporated public commercial bank listed on the London Stock Exchange, Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and New York Stock Exchange, with no golden share or state ownership stake identified in its SEC Form 20-F filings ⁶⁰. No public evidence identified that HSBC’s charter or founding mandate ties its primary corporate mission to advancing any state’s geopolitical goals, Israeli or otherwise; its stated mission in public filings is standard commercial, retail, and institutional banking ⁶⁰. Group leadership as of 2026 comprises Georges Elhedery as Group Chief Executive, in post since September 2024 ⁵, and Brendan Nelson as Group Chairman, appointed interim from September 2025 and subsequently confirmed permanent, following the retirement of Sir Mark Tucker effective 30 September 2025 ⁶¹⁶².

Executive & Leadership Footprint

No public evidence identified of personal donations by Georges Elhedery, Mark Tucker, Brendan Nelson, or other named HSBC board members or executives to FIDF, JNF, or other parastatal or military-welfare organizations. Georges Elhedery’s only identified public remarks touching the conflict are his April 2026 comments on the Israel-Iran war, framed entirely in economic and market-confidence terms, with no reference to civilian harm, human rights, or the Gaza war specifically ⁶⁷⁸⁹. Stuart Levey, HSBC’s chief legal officer at the time of the 2018 Elbit divestment, is the only named HSBC executive found making a direct public statement on an Israel-linked corporate decision, and that statement explicitly disclaimed any BDS or political motivation ¹⁰. Current HSBC board composition includes Georges Elhedery, Brendan Nelson, Geraldine Buckingham, and Rachel Duan, among others ⁶³. No public evidence identified that any current HSBC board member holds a personal board seat, leadership role, or advisory position in a geopolitical pressure group, state-aligned academic institution, or lobbying organization connected to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

End Notes