HSBC Is Not Exposed to First Brands Collapse, Top Executive Says

HSBC Holdings Plc is not exposed to the collapse of scandal-hit auto-parts supplier First Brands Group, whose bankruptcy has left some of the biggest players on Wall Street facing hundreds of millions of dollars in potential losses.

“We were not involved directly in First Brands and don’t know how much due diligence was done,” Michael Roberts, HSBC’s head of corporate and institutional banking, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday. Roberts warned that fraudsters were “getting better” and that the banking industry needed to up its game.

Michael Roberts

Photographer: Lam Yik/Bloomberg

“You’re going to have to respond by being ...