The decision by HSBC to remain in London rather than up sticks to Hong Kong should surprise no one except for credulous¹ Canary Wharf² estate³ agents and anxious UK government officials. The bank says its strategic focus will remain on Asia. If so, it should consider reflecting that bias⁴ in its boardroom.

对于汇丰银行(HSBC)放弃把总部迁往香港而留在伦敦的决定，除了金丝雀码头(Canary Wharf)的房地产代理和焦虑的英国政府官员外，应该不会有谁感到意外。这家银行声称自己的战略重点仍在亚洲。若果真如此，它应当考虑在董事会成员的组成上反映出这一侧重。

Asia remains⁵ the engine room of the bank’s earnings⁶. It accounted for 64 per cent of HSBC’s adjusted pre-tax profits in 2014, a 2 percentage point rise from the year before. Profits there have grown an average above 8 per cent since chairman Douglas Flint was appointed to the board in 1995; the comparable figure for Europe is 4 per cent. HSBC has announced plans to redeploy about a sixth of its $2.5tn balance sheet to Asia, especially China’s Pearl River Delta⁷ region, to further capitalise on growth there.

亚洲仍是推动这家银行盈利的引擎。2014年汇丰经调整税前利润的64%来自这一地区，比上一年上升2个百分点。自董事长范智廉(Douglas Flint) 1995年进入董事会以来，亚洲利润平均增长逾8%；欧洲的可比数据是4%。汇丰已宣布计划，拟将其2.5万亿美元资产负债表的大约六分之一重新部署到亚洲，尤其是中国珠江三角洲地区，进一步利用那里的增长。

Despite its eastward⁸ bent⁹, HSBC appears to have just two Asian nationals on its 19-strong board. Both are non-executive directors. Other financial groups with large Asian operations have similarly low regional representation. Standard Chartered, which derived¹⁰ over 70 per cent of pre-tax profits from Asia, has three nationals from the region out of 15 board members. Prudential, where Asia accounted for a third of operating profits last year, has just one.

尽管倚重东方，但该行的19名董事中只有两名亚洲籍人士。两人都是非执行董事。其它拥有大规模亚洲业务的金融机构，区域代表的比例也同样很低。税前利润70%来自亚洲的渣打(Standard Chartered)银行，董事会15名成员中有3名来自亚洲。亚洲占去年整体营运利润三分之一的保诚(Prudential)集团，只有1名亚洲籍人士。

Last year, HSBC announced that it would bolster¹¹ the number of non-executive directors. The result was more Europeans: Henri de Castries, of French insurer Axa, and Paul Walsh of Compass (and former boss of Diageo, a big player in emerging markets).

去年，汇丰宣布将增加非执行董事的数量。结果是新增了来自欧洲的董事：法国安盛(Axa)保险公司的亨利·德·卡斯特(Henri de Castries)，以及康巴斯(Compass)的保罗·沃什(Paul Walsh)——他是新兴市场重要参与者帝亚吉欧(Diageo)的前老板。

True, at the operating level, locals are well represented. A majority of the directors of HSBC’s Hong Kong retail¹² bank are drawn¹³ from the region. But appearances and connections count for a lot in Asia and the lack of Asian faces in the group boardroom sits oddly with HSBC’s ambitions. As the bank’s board evolves — Mr Flint is expected to step down during the coming year — it would be appropriate for some of that talent to relocate to London.

没错，在运营层面，区域管理层中本地人不少。汇丰香港零售银行的大部分董事都来自本地。但是，形象和人脉在亚洲意义匪浅，在集团董事会中缺少亚洲面孔，与汇丰的雄心格格不入。随着这家银行董事会的演变（范智廉预计将在未来一年离职），把一些亚洲的人才调任至伦敦将是合适的。