Cultural References
In Hong Kong, the local population sometimes refers to the bank as 獅子銀行, "the Lion Bank", because of the pair of lion statues outside the HSBC headquarters, which also appear in some banknotes. Local films and television series set in Hong Kong, especially comedies, use this nickname when referring to the bank.
Although the Hong Kong Government changed the official spelling of "Hongkong" to "Hong Kong", by the instructions of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, on 3 September 1926, HSBC uses the older Hongkong, as the bank's name was conceived before the official declaration of the modern two-word name, and it was decided to retain the single word spelling in the Bank's name: Hongkong.
The famous English humorist P. G. Wodehouse was a junior employee at the Bank's London office in Lombard Street from 1900 to 1902, and used the bank as an inspiration for some of his early work, especially his 1910 novel Psmith in the City.
Read more about this topic: The Hongkong And Shanghai Banking Corporation
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—William Gibson (b. 1948)