HSBC, Europe's most valuable bank, makes most of its money in Asia but is headquartered in the UK. Now its largest shareholder, China's Ping An Insurance, is pushing for strong measures to rectify this unwieldy arrangement — including a potential spinoff of the Asian business.

HSBC is involved in a major restructuring effort to tilt its business further toward Asia, which accounted for 65% of pretax profits in 2021. Slow progress toward this goal — and a share price that remains mired below pre-pandemic levels, in contrast to some sizable Asian rivals like Singapore's DBS, might be one factor spurring demands for more radical action from Ping An, which owns about 8% of the company.