The board of HSBC Holdings (0005) will meet on Sunday to decide whether to shift its headquarters from London, said two people with knowledge of the decision.
The board has a meeting scheduled in London and if a decision is reached, the bank will make a formal announcement that evening.
There is a chance the board will not reach a verdict and postpone the decision, they said.
The board, led by chief executive Stuart Gulliver and chairman Douglas Flint, started a review of the bank's UK domicile in April, mulling tax systems, financial regulations and the ability to tap qualified staff among 11 factors outlined. British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has since made concessions to the largest banks, scrapping plans to raise the tax burden further and helping pave the way to ease regulatory scrutiny. The board has another meeting scheduled for February 19 in London, where members will sign off on the bank's full-year results.
Finance director Iain Mackay has said HSBC considered Hong Kong as well as Canada, the US China, Australia, Singapore, France and Germany as possible locations.
Hong Kong is seen by analysts and shareholders as the most likely destination. Large investors, including Aberdeen Asset Management, forecast the bank to stay in London.
The UK bank, meanwhile, has been sued by the families of US citizens murdered by drug gangs in Mexico, claiming the bank let cartels launder billions of dollars to operate their business.
The lawsuit alleges that by participating in the money-laundering scheme of the cartels, HSBC knowingly contributed directly to the international drug and trafficking trade, including the "brutal acts" that accompanied it, during the period of 2010 to 2011.
HSBC, which had already been monitored for involvement in money-laundering schemes, paid nearly US$2 billion (HK$15.6 billion) in penalties in December 2012 to resolve charges that it failed to stop hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money from flowing through the bank from Mexico, and it promised to fix the problems.
HSBC said it intends to defend itself "vigorously" against the legal claims. AGENCIES
