Asian dissuasion

LIKE many firms with roots in Hong Kong, HSBC has traditionally consulted a feng shui master on the design of its headquarters’ buildings. The bank’s dilemma today is more serious: in which country should its headquarters be? For the past year HSBC has debated moving its domicile, which in turn determines its tax base, lead regulator and lender of last resort.One option is to stay in Britain, with its bank-bashers, latent hostility towards the City of London and ambivalence about Europe. The alternative is to move back to vibrant-but-riskier Hong Kong, where HSBC was founded 151 years ago and was based until the 1990s. It is not an easy choice, but in the end pub grub and stability trump dim sum and political uncertainty.