HSBC Group (The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) was founded in 1865. The headquarters of the Group is based in London. HSBC Group serves over 128 million clients in 10,000 offices located in 83 countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific region, North and South America, Middle East and Africa. With assets of $ 2.354 billion as of December 31, 2007, HSBC Group is one of the world's largest organizations providing banking and financial services. HSBC positions itself worldwide as «The world's local bank»