HSBC Holdings PLC faces a warning from the UK’s advertising watchdog over greenwashing, and is being ordered to be more transparent over its contribution to climate change, the Financial Times reported.
The Advertising Standards Authority said the bank misled customers in two advertisements published in October last year by selectively promoting green initiatives and leaving out information about its financing of companies with substantial emissions, the newspaper said, citing a draft recommendation it has seen.
The authority is proposing ordering HSBC UK to “ensure that future marketing communications featuring environmental claims did not omit significant information about its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions,” it said.
Photo: Reuters
HSBC is preparing a response to the draft recommendation, which would be examined by the watchdog’s council, it said.
Separately, HSBC’s largest active investor would support a breakup of the lender on the basis that a separate Asia-listed unit creates shareholder value.
Ping An Insurance Group Co (平安保險集團) has held discussions with the bank on the idea of spinning off HSBC’s Asian operations and listing them separately in Hong Kong, according to people familiar with the matter, adding that a spinoff would likely win broad investor support.
China’s largest insurer owned 8 percent of London-headquartered HSBC at the end of last year, the bank’s annual report said. About 65 percent of HSBC’s profit before tax comes from Asia compared to a fifth from Europe.
Ping An supports all reform proposals from investors that can help with HSBC’s operations and “long-term value growth,” a spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday.
Breaking up the bank could follow the Prudential PLC playbook. The insurance group split its Asian unit from its UK operations in 2019, but kept its listing in London.
Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday introduced the company’s latest supercomputer platform, featuring six new chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), saying that it is now “in full production.” “If Vera Rubin is going to be in time for this year, it must be in production by now, and so, today I can tell you that Vera Rubin is in full production,” Huang said during his keynote speech at CES in Las Vegas. The rollout of six concurrent chips for Vera Rubin — the company’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) computing platform — marks a strategic
Enhanced tax credits that have helped reduce the cost of health insurance for the vast majority of US Affordable Care Act enrollees expired on Jan.1, cementing higher health costs for millions of Americans at the start of the new year. Democrats forced a 43-day US government shutdown over the issue. Moderate Republicans called for a solution to save their political aspirations this year. US President Donald Trump floated a way out, only to back off after conservative backlash. In the end, no one’s efforts were enough to save the subsidies before their expiration date. A US House of Representatives vote
REVENUE PERFORMANCE: Cloud and network products, and electronic components saw strong increases, while smart consumer electronics and computing products fell Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted 26.51 percent quarterly growth in revenue for last quarter to NT$2.6 trillion (US$82.44 billion), the strongest on record for the period and above expectations, but the company forecast a slight revenue dip this quarter due to seasonal factors. On an annual basis, revenue last quarter grew 22.07 percent, the company said. Analysts on average estimated about NT$2.4 trillion increase. Hon Hai, which assembles servers for Nvidia Corp and iPhones for Apple Inc, is expanding its capacity in the US, adding artificial intelligence (AI) server production in Wisconsin and Texas, where it operates established campuses. This
US President Donald Trump on Friday blocked US photonics firm HieFo Corp’s US$3 million acquisition of assets in New Jersey-based aerospace and defense specialist Emcore Corp, citing national security and China-related concerns. In an order released by the White House, Trump said HieFo was “controlled by a citizen of the People’s Republic of China” and that its 2024 acquisition of Emcore’s businesses led the US president to believe that it might “take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.” The order did not name the person or detail Trump’s concerns. “The Transaction is hereby prohibited,”
RSS