The Rise of HSBC: Foreign Banks in the United States, Circumventing Regulators

In the 1970s, a trail-blazing Jewish-American executive became the first woman to hold a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. As Superintendent of Banks for the State of New York, Muriel Siebert challenged the City of London’s encroachment into the state of New York, leading the Rothschild-backed Financial Times to characterize her as “the most powerful woman in New York,” before demonstrating that Rothschild interests were more powerful still.

Siebert was determined to forestall the foreign takeover of America’s banks. As the maverick banker explains, one day Americans would wake up to discover the banks with all-American sounding names were no longer serving the American people or their communities.

If Siebert had her druthers, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC), a key driver of the City of London’s financial interests on the world stage, never would have been allowed to become a major player within the U.S. banking system.

The story begins in 1978 when HSBC approached Siebert’s office for approval to purchase Marine Midland Bank in Buffalo, New York. “I first thought it was a great idea, but then I resisted,” she writes in her autobiography, Changing the Rules: Adventures of a Wall Street Maverick. “It was becoming increasingly fashionable for major international banks to have a presence in this country.”

The decline of U.S. dollar and the depressed value of American bank stocks made U.S. banks targets for wealthy foreign investors who appreciated the political stability of the United States. As a senior officer of the Barclay’s explains, “We view the United States as the last bastion of capitalism. We feel our money is safe here.”

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(c) 2024 Susan Bradford

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