Humble pie – then a slice of bid action? - Business

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That makes it all the more noticeable that HSBC has not turned to the Government or to foreign sovereign wealth funds for today's record fundraising.

"Well-capitalised, liquid and profitable," was chairman Stephen Green's brief version of why his bank is so much better than the rest.

But Green and his co-directors have had to eat humble pie. Most of them have taken pay cuts today, and the dividend will be reduced. That partly explains today's share-price crash, with the rest of the damage coming from the cautious outlook statement.

The knee-jerk reaction could be wrong. The bank sees chances to pick up decent businesses from rivals who have been more damaged by the credit crunch.

HSBC has a tradition of picking up cheap assets. It was little-known in the UK until it bought a 15% stake in Midland Bank for £345 million in the stock-market collapse of 1987. It secured the rest for less than £4 billion in 1992 when Britain was entering its last major recession.