Sandwiched between Mayfair and the Mall, the London district of St James’s has been the epicentre of the world of private members’ clubs since the 18th century. But now old-stagers such as White’s (founded 1693) and Boodle’s (1762) have a new neighbour in the form of HSBC’s brand new ‘London Wealth Centre’.
Earlier this month the bank quietly unveiled its new 7,000 sq ft space on St James’s Street, which represents a £5 million investment.
That figure covers the design, fit-out and two 3D printed models of the lions, ‘Stephen and Stitt’, which are scaled down replicas of three-tonne brass statues from the bank’s main Hong Kong premises. However, it does not include the cost of the lease on the seventh and eighth floors of Smithson Tower, which the facility occupies.
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This is HSBC’s first ‘wealth centre’ in the UK, although it has deployed the concept successfully in other cities, particularly across Asia. In the last year alone, HSBC has also opened similar facilities in mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan.
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Describing the UK as ‘a pivotal wealth hub’, Christopher Dean, managing director of Premier, Wealth and Personal Banking at HSBC UK, noted that the world’s wealthiest investors are becoming more mobile as they seek global opportunities for their assets and businesses.
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‘By broadening our network of wealth centres across the globe, we want to leverage international connectivity between our key markets globally and make it as easy as possible for customers to invest across different markets, while helping them manage their money across multiple geographies.’
The wealth centre will double-up as a private members’ club for the bank’s wealthy customers and as a place to meet with their relationship manager or private banker. The space is equipped with work spaces, soft seating, a bar area, event and networking space, meeting rooms, a sound-proof ‘privacy pod’ for phone calls and even toys for children who might need to be entertained if they happen to be accompanying their parents.
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Access to the HSBC London Wealth Centre comes as a perk for certain customers of the bank’s ‘Premier’ service (who must have annual income or deposits of £100,000 or more) and private banking clients (who qualify by having £2 million or more invested with the bank). HSBC’s private bank also hosts HNW and UHNW clients for meetings at its glossy Cork Street offices in Mayfair.
There has been some speculation that the relocation of HSBC’s London headquarters from Canary Wharf to St Paul’s, which is slated to take effect in 2027, could lead to the closure of the Cork Street premises. However, the CEO of HSBC’s UK private bank, Charles Boulton, told Spear’s this is not on the cards.
Boulton put the move to open the facility on St James’s Street in context by noting what he called HSBC’s ‘desire’ to be among the top five wealth managers in the UK. ‘We’ve got a black-and-white target to get to £100 billion [AuM] in the next four years – managed assets based in the UK, across retail and the private bank.’
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Despite the well-documented departure of many of the UK’s wealthiest people in recent months, Boulton said HSBC’s UK private bank had registered two of its best ever quarters in Q4 of 2024 and Q1 of 2025, with record-setting net new money.
‘There’s obviously been a lot of legislative changes,’ said Boulton, referring to tax changes brought in by the Labour government. ‘To some extent that provided a bit of a catalyst to people selling things, often businesses – but not exclusively. Obviously those liquidity events create an opportunity for us.’ However, he noted ‘some of that momentum has eased’ over the past few months.
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Boulton estimates that less than 20 per cent of HSBC’s non-dom clients had left the UK. He added that even in cases when UHNWs had moved their tax residency to another jurisdiction, they were likely to retain relationships with wealth managers and private bankers in London. ‘We continue to advise them, whether they sit in London or they sit in Milan,’ he said.
‘Obviously the IHT changes have been a catalyst to a lot,’ said Boulton. ‘We’ve probably seen a slowdown in terms of people moving to the UK, but it certainly hasn’t stopped.
‘The UK remains attractive. The Brits do a great job of criticising what we’ve got. But until you’ve lived somewhere else, you don’t know what you have.’
