
HONG KONG -- HSBC Holdings on Thursday announced its exit from U.S. retail banking, pulling the plug on years of underperformance, to focus on its profitable operations in Asia.
The London-headquartered bank, which has one of the largest U.S. businesses of any non-American bank, said it had reached agreements to sell 90 branches, would convert up to 25 others to serve wealthy international clients and would close as many as 40 others.