The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced that it would welcome the biggest bank in the U.K., HSBC, to move their global management center from London to Hong Kong.

Answering questions from an Anadolu Agency (AA) reporter, a representative of the HKMA said that it has taken notice of HSBC's Board of Directors to find the most suitable location for the global headquarters of the bank.

The HKMA, which is the highest representative authority of Hong Kong's banking sector, said that HSBC is the largest bank in Hong Kong with historical ties and that it would positively welcome such a decision to move their headquarters to Hong Kong.

Speaking at a meeting held in London last week, HSBC Group President Douglas Flint said that as part of the general strategy, the bank's board of directors requested that they search for the best spot in Hong Kong for HSBC's new headquarters. "It is too early to say how long this will take, but we are currently working on this search," Flint said.

The HSBC Group emerged from the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, established in Hong Kong in 1865. What was then called the Imperial Bank of Persia, now HSBC, was established when the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation purchased the British Bank of the Middle East. HSBC Holdings was established in 1991 and the HSBC Group moved its headquarters to London in 1993. Today, HSBC employs 307,000 people in 87 countries and has about 95 million customers.