HSBC may spin off its UK division into a separate business, reviving the old Midland Bank.
The move could be considered as part of the far-reaching review by Britain’s largest bank, announced on Friday, into whether to move its headquarters to Asia amid rising costs and increasingly onerous regulations in the UK.
If HSBC were to split off Midland, it would create a powerful new force in retail banking, something that would chime with the political mood of wanting more competition in the sector.
HSBC recently revealed that it would base its retail bank in Birmingham, with an initial commitment to move 1,000 jobs there from its London head office. It already has three sites in the city, employing 2,500 people.
About 48,000 of HSBC’s