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Opinion
Nisha Gopalan

HSBC Gets the Cold Shoulder in China

Being omitted from a list of banks helping to set a new benchmark will feed perceptions it’s in Beijing’s bad books.

It’s chilly out there.

It’s chilly out there.

Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg

It’s hard not to see HSBC Holdings Plc’s exclusion from China’s interest-rate reform as a snub.

Hong Kong’s biggest bank wasn’t included in a list of 18 lenders that will participate in pricing for a new loan prime rate that the People’s Bank of China will start releasing Tuesday. The roster includes foreign lenders Standard Chartered Plc and Citigroup Inc., which have smaller China businesses than HSBC.