It was established in 1889 with a concession from the Persian government to Baron Julius De Reuter (born Israel Beer Josaphat), a German Jewish banker and businessman who later became a Christian and a British subject.

The legal centre of the bank was in London and whilst it was subject to British law, its activities were based in Tehran.

It is represented by HSBC Middle East Limited (HBME) and is the largest foreign bank in Bahrain.

[8] British Bank of the Middle East opened a branch in 1975 that it closed in 1986, having failed to adapt itself to the market.

HSBC started operations in Israel with a full banking license since 2001, headquartered at Ramat Gan.

In 2013, HSBC Jordan's banking business consisted of four branches with gross assets of approximately $1.2 billion.

[11][12] HSBC first received the license to operate in Kuwait as the Imperial Bank of Persia in 1942, it renamed itself to BBME in 1952.

It maintained a network of four offices in St. Georges Bay, Dora, Achrafieh and Ras Beirut which is supported by telephone and internet banking services.

HSBC's offices in Pakistan were operated by The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation initially.

Out of its branches, four were located in Karachi, two each in Lahore and Islamabad, and one each in Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sialkot and Multan.

All operations of HSBC, including personal and commercial banking and headquarters in Ramallah, were closed by 31 December 2015.

The United Arab Emirates represents a key part of HSBC's business, with 24 branches and offices.

[3] Source:[28] On 22 February 2021, the HSBC Group announced a change to its senior management team in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey region.