Now that US banks are more reluctant to lend money, will foreign banks be stepping in to fill the gap? It seems like the current crisis could be a good opportunity for well-heeled foreign banks to step into the US mortgage market.
However, I’m a pizza delivery boy, not a hedge fund manager, so I don’t know much about finance. Is this scenario likely, or are there good reasons why it won’t happen?
A Spanish bank is buying Sovereign, a mid-sized eastern bank. You’re likely to see foreign banks buying existing US banks rather then operating under their own names to start. But there already are foreign banks operating in the US.
There are already lots of Asian banks located where I live in California. Whether they are doing more mortgage business now versus 6 months ago I can’t tell you. I would expect them to be just as skiddish as US banks are given that housing prices keep dropping…
There is already a Chinese (Honk Kong Shanghai) bank where I live. I haven’t been in so I couldn’t say if you could get a mortgage or open an account or what, but it’s there.
And that bank (HSBC) already has a branch in Portland OR.
I looked at that via wiki. Wiki says that HSBC is headquartered in London. I dunno if it is a company held over from the days when Hong Kong was a Crown Colony, or what.
I suspect so. The name Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation brings up images of China before the First World War, the Unequal Treaties, treaty ports, and all that. Not the Opium Wars, though; that’s a little too far back.
They’re opening a branch near where I live.
You want intriguing banks from overseas? ICICI Bank is making an inroad into Canada. Yes, it’s the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation… of India.
HSBC is a British bank and has nothing to do with China.
Some other foreign owned banks operating in the US include ABN-AMRO/Royal Bank of Scotland, Credit Suisse, Bank of Montreal, and Banco Popular.
Some of them operate under local brands that they’ve aquired (i.e. Bank of Montreal operates in the US under Harris NA) and others such as Banco Popular operate under the home bank name.
Maybe now, but it was founded in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1865. Wikipedia.
Hmm. Maybe it does go back as far as the Opium Wars…
There’s a Chinese bank open about a mile from my house; unfortunately I have forgotten the name. I’m not in that neighborhood often and it might have closed recently.
Seriously who names a bank icky.
Declan
I was thinking more along these lines:
Bank Customer: “So, Mr. Banker, first somebody hacks into my account at your bank and steals my money. You make getting it back a hassle, and you charge me plenty of service fees for the inconvenience. Then your ATM eats my card. You need better service; where else am I going to go?”
Banker: “I see, I see, I…”
Hong Kong was a British Colony back then, so I think they still qualify as a “British” Bank.
One with a cool name that conjures up images of the exotic Far East, IMHO. 
I believe HSBC was founded by a Scotsman, so it’s fair to say it’s pretty much a bonafide British bank.
I think they have branches practically everywhere around the world.
HSBC consider themselves “British” to whatever (tiny) extent global banking concerns consider themselves to have any kind of nationality.
Basically they’re a colonial bank that done good (eventually buying out Midland Bank to come full circle onto the UK High Street) and have headquarters in both London and Hong Kong.
As others have said, it was founded by a Brit in what is now China, but what was very much a zone of British influence for over a hundred years (and still isn’t really regarded by many of its own residents as “Chinese”).
You know, I have no idea how they say the name. It’s splashed proudly across an office building near Eglinton and the DVP in Toronto; it’s on billboards near my work; there’s a branch in southern Brampton across from Shopper’s World mall; but I’ve never heard anyone actually say the name. “Eye see eye see eye”? “Eekeekee”? Something else?
Maybe I should get an account there just to find out. 
I’m sure it’s:
Ekke Ekke Ekke F’tang F’tang Olé Biscuitbarrel
I just joined a Credit union today, instead of being a bank customer.
Friendly, helpful, & they gave me a much better interest rate.
There’s a list of overseas Chinese banks in the US at the foot of this Wikipedia article. Most of them are not obviously Chinese, at least not to my untutored eye.
I have in fact applied for an account with the Tomato Bank, but my application has yet to come to fruition.