汇丰处处碰壁 应该迁离英国

Scottish nationalism figured prominently in the campaign for Thursday’s UK general election. But the first true act of independence could be a move by HSBC, a bank that has never been happy in London, back to Hong Kong. The Scots expatriate clan that founded and still heads HSBC is losing patience — a virtue it never possessed in abundance — with being taxed, ringfenced and unappreciated.

在围绕周四英国大选展开的竞选活动中，苏格兰民族主义成为一个热点。但首个真正的“独立”行动，可能是汇丰银行(HSBC)将总部迁回香港。汇丰在伦敦似乎从未高兴过，创立汇丰并依然领导该行的苏格兰移民家族因赋税、圈护规则以及不被赏识而正在失去耐心，而耐心是该家族从未充分拥有的一种美德。

HSBC ought to move, perhaps along with Standard Chartered, the other product of the former British empire that is starting to look out of place in a discontented UK. Asia is a better location for HSBC to have its head office, as it did until 1993, when it was forced to emigrate to London as a condition for buying Midland Bank. There is not much point in dallying.

汇丰应该迁离英国，也许可以与前大英帝国的另一产物渣打银行(Standard Chartered)一起，后者在不满足的英国也开始显得格格不入。亚洲对于汇丰总部外迁来说是一个更好的选择，汇丰直至1993年才被迫将总部从香港迁至伦敦——作为收购米特兰银行(Midland Bank)的条件。再磨蹭也没什么意义。

Not only are economic growth prospects far better in Asia, but banks are regarded by British politicians — and many voters — with hostility and disdain. There are obvious reasons for this, but it might do them good to realise that the UK cannot remain complacent about its role in the world. It has some attractions as a global financial centre, but they are not infinite.

这不仅是由于亚洲经济增长前景要好得多，更是因为英国政客们（以及许多选民）都对银行抱有敌意和不屑。显然，这事出有因，但如果这些政客们意识到英国不能继续自满于在世界中的角色，这可能会对他们有好处。英国作为全球金融中心有一定的吸引力，但这些吸引力并不是无限的。

It is an anomaly that HSBC is headquartered in the UK and thus due to pay a levy of $1.5bn on its global balance sheet this year. The bank’s heart lies in Hong Kong, where it was founded in 1865 and still issues banknotes. Asia contributed 78 per cent of its profits last year, while only 3 per cent came from Europe. That becomes ever truer as it retreats from ill-advised global forays.

汇丰的总部设在英国，因而就应该在今年为其全球资产负债表向英国缴税15亿美元，这是一种畸形现象。汇丰的核心在香港，该行1865年成立于此，至今仍在香港发行钞票。去年，亚洲贡献了汇丰78%的利润，而欧洲只有3%。随着汇丰从其考虑不周的全球扩张中回撤，亚洲的贡献显得更加突出了。

The UK bank levy, introduced in 2011 and increased eight times since, has been rapidly transformed from a targeted incentive to reduce systemic risk by trimming balance sheets into permanent, all-purpose taxation. Both the Conservative and Labour parties would raise the levy if elected, with Labour adding £800m to pay for childcare.

英国2011年开始实施的银行税（此后税率已提高8倍），已经迅速地从一项通过削减资产负债表以减少系统性风险的有针对性的刺激措施转变成一项永久性、通用的税种。不论保守党还是工党赢得大选，它们都将提高银行税，其中工党计划每年增收8亿英镑用以支付儿童保育经费。

The levy falls more heavily on HSBC and Standard Chartered than it does on foreign banks that pay only on UK activities, or UK banks that do not have big operations abroad. As a contribution to the government for providing a backstop in a crisis, it has its merits, (although banks also pay deposit insurance and corporation tax), but it is badly targeted as a general tax.

银行税给汇丰和渣打造成很大负担，而对只为英国业务缴税的外国银行或者那些没有庞大海外业务的本土银行影响不大。作为对政府在危机中提供援助而缴的税项，银行税有其优点（尽管银行也缴纳存款保险和企业所得税），但它已经被完全当作了一般税来征收。

After all, neither HSBC nor Standard Chartered, which gains only 8 per cent of its turnover from the UK, needs to pay the non-UK element. It might cost them £1bn each to move head office, but they could recoup it quickly while shielding themselves from further rises in the levy, and political uncertainties including the possibility of the UK leaving the EU.

毕竟，不管是汇丰，还是仅有8%营收来自英国的渣打，都不必为非英国部分缴税。总部迁址可能要花费两家银行各10亿英镑，但它们可以很快收回这项成本，同时又免受英国银行税进一步提高以及英国可能脱离欧盟等政治不确定性的困扰。

For Standard Chartered, London has historic advantages. Its operations are evenly spread across different countries and regions and the UK has provided a neutral, stable home with a strong legal system and regulatory structure (despite the flaws revealed by the 2008 crisis). Without a sharp prod to move, it would probably stay.

对渣打而言，伦敦具有历史优势。该行的分支机构均匀地分布在不同的国家和地区，而英国以其强大的法律体系和监管结构（虽然2008年金融危机暴露出一些缺陷）为渣打提供了一个中立、稳定的总部环境。在没有受到重大刺激的情况下，渣打很可能会留下来。

But British parochialism is evident both in how the bank levy has been imposed and the general reaction to HSBC raising the possibility of leaving (“They’re only bluffing and good riddance to bankers, anyway,” has been the dominant note). The truth is that Asia is an attractive alternative.

但英国的狭隘性不但明显地体现在征收银行税这件事上，还体现在汇丰提出考虑迁离英国后国人普遍的反应。（“他们只是在虚张声势，不管怎么说，银行家走了最好，”已成为主流基调）。而事实是，亚洲是一个有吸引力的选择。

Not only is HSBC valued by Hong Kong investors more for paying dividends than taxes but it wins easily on “a 20-year view on where is the fastest economic growth in the world”, as Stuart Gulliver, HSBC’s chief executive, phrased the choice this week. HSBC came to the UK in 1993 to hedge political and financial risk, but this is a logical time to double down on Asia.

比起缴税，香港投资者更看重汇丰的是其派发的股息，而且汇丰可以凭借“关于世界上经济增长最快的地区在哪里的超前20年的眼光”——这是汇丰行政总裁欧智华(Stuart Gulliver)评论这一选择时的措辞——轻松致胜。汇丰1993年迁册英国以规避政治和金融风险，但现在是对亚洲双倍下注的恰当时候了。

Both Hong Kong and Singapore are well supervised financial centres that emerged intact from the 1997 Asian crisis — one US chief executive rates Singapore as “the gold standard” for regulation, with well-paid, technocratic and strict supervisors that impose firm risk limits. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is known for intervening to curtail property lending.

香港和新加坡都是从1997年亚洲金融危机中毫发无损走出来的、监管完善的金融中心——一位美国首席执行官将新加坡比作监管的“黄金标准”，由高薪酬、懂技术而且严格的监管人员实施严格的风险限制措施。香港金融管理局(Hong Kong Monetary Authority)以通过干预削减房地产贷款而闻名。

The question is whether Hong Kong is strong enough to take on the whole of HSBC’s $2.6tn balance sheet. It is already highly banked — banking assets are 700 per cent of gross domestic product and HSBC is the largest local bank. China could stand behind the territory in a crisis, but HSBC would not want to risk the dragon’s embrace.

问题在于香港是否有能力容纳汇丰2.6万亿美元的资产负债表。香港早已高度银行化——银行业资产是本地生产总值(GDP)的7倍，而汇丰银行是本港最大的银行。假如发生危机，中国可以支持香港地区，但汇丰不会想冒被“巨龙”拥抱的风险。

The UK has made it easier for HSBC to leave in this regard. By imposing ringfencing of balance sheets of UK retail banks from 2019, it is mirroring how HSBC structures itself. Instead of relying on a central pool of capital — whether in London or Hong Kong — to support all of its activities, it holds capital at each subsidiary, lessening the weight for Hong Kong to bear.

在这方面，英国的做法已经让汇丰可以更容易地迁离。自2019年起英国将对零售银行的资产负债表实行圈护，这借鉴汇丰架构自身业务的方式。不是依靠某个资本核心区——伦敦或香港——支持其所有业务活动，汇丰将资本分散到所有子公司，这会减轻香港承受的压力。

It would be useful for HSBC and the UK to part ways now. The former has grumbled for a long time about having to be in London and has a natural home to which to relocate. The latter would get a reality check — evidence that it stands to lose something by treating global banks that choose to domicile there largely as taxable pariahs.

汇丰和英国在此刻说再见是有用的。前者对于不得不窝在伦敦抱怨已久，而且拥有迁址总部的天然场所。后者会得到现实反思——认识到对待将总部设在英国的跨国银行如同应纳税的贱民一样，会让英国失去什么。

The loss would involve more than the levy — although halving the amount that HSBC pays would be significant enough. It would also mean a reduction in jobs and in work for professional services firms. The UK, along with other countries, is right to regulate banks more tightly than before. But it needs them to settle too.

英国失去的将不只是税收——尽管汇丰的纳税额就算减半也足够大。这也意味着就业以及专业服务公司的工作减少。英国（还有其他国家）用比以往更严格的方式监管银行是对的，但也需要能将它们留住。