Standard&Poor's bases its ratings on the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. (HSBC Asia Pacific) on the bank's "very strong" business position, "adequate" capital and earnings, "adequate" risk position, "above average" funding, and "strong" liquidity, as our criteria define these terms. The counterparty credit rating is one notch higher than the stand-alone credit profile (SACP), reflecting our view of a high likelihood of government support, due to HSBC Asia Pacific's high systemic importance in Hong Kong and our assessment of the government as "highly supportive". The bank has the largest market share of loans and deposits and is one of the only three note-issuing banks in Hong Kong. At the same time, we recognize that the bank comfortably
