The group is shifting the HQ of part of its operations out of London - highlighting how there are more places than the capital when it comes to main offices for banks.

It may be listed in Hong Kong and London, but as far as the British part of HSBC is concerned, the bank will no longer choose the UK capital as its headquarters for personal and business customers.

As part of a shakeup to the structure of the bank, in part brought about by new UK “ring-fencing” rules splitting off the retail parts of banks from the allegedly more risky investment banking side, HSBC said this week that the head office of its personal and business bank will be in Birmingham in the UK’s West Midlands region.

The shift does not, at least directly, have any effect on HSBC's private banking arm in the UK.

The decision means that around 1,000 head office roles move to Birmingham ahead of the ring-fencing deadline of 1 January 2019, HSBC said in a statement earlier this week. The bank said it has consulted with unions about the change and is working with local authorities in Birmingham to help staff relocate to the city.

HSBC said it chose Birmingham after a series of reviews and given that HSBC serves 16 million clients across the UK.

The bank said it is in advanced negotiations to acquire a 250-year lease on a new office comprising 210,000 sq ft at Arena Central in Birmingham. Arena Central is part of Birmingham’s Enterprise Zone within the city centre. It is anticipated that development of the site will start by June 2015.

(Editor's note: In some ways this is a welcome development and a response to the notion that too much of the financial services sector in the UK is clustered around London and the southeast of England. The arrival of such a large bank is a big boost for the place sometimes called the UK's second-largest city.)