Major acquisitions in South America started with the purchase of Banco Bamerindus of Brazil for $1bn in March 1997 and the acquisition of Roberts SA de Inversiones of Argentina for $600m in May 1997.
In May 1999 HSBC embarked on a major acquisition in the United States with the purchase of Republic National Bank of New York for $10.3bn.
Expansion into Continental Europe took place in April 2000 with the acquisition of Crédit Commercial de France, a large French bank for £6.6bn.
In July 2001 HSBC bought Demirbank, an insolvent Turkish bank. Then in August 2002 HSBC acquired Grupo Financiero Bital, SA de CV, Mexico's largest retail bank for $1.1bn.
The new headquarters of HSBC Holdings at 8 Canada Square, London officially opened in April 2003.
In November 2002 HSBC expanded in the United States acquiring Household International, a US credit card issuer for £9bn. In a 2003 cover story, The Banker noted "when banking historians look back, they may conclude that [it] was the deal of the first decade of the 21st century".
Then in September 2003 HSBC bought Polski Kredyt Bank SA of Poland for $7.8m.
A terrorist attack took place in November 2003: a bomb blast in Istanbul damaged the bank’s head office in Turkey, causing several deaths and hundreds of injuries.
In October 2003 HSBC bought the Bank of Bermuda for $1.3bn.
In June 2004 HSBC expanded into China buying 19.9% of the Bank of Communications of Shanghai.
In the United Kingdom HSBC acquired Marks & Spencer Retail Financial Services Holdings Ltd for £763m in December 2004.
Acquisitions in 2005 included Metris Inc, a US credit card issuer for $1.6bn in August and 70.1% of Dar Es Salaam Investment Bank of Iraq in October.In April 2006 HSBC bought the 90 branches in Argentina of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro for $155m.Later that year, in July HSBC bought Grupo Banistmo, the largest financial services company in Central America, based in Panama for $1.8bn.
In December 2007 HSBC acquired The Chinese Bank in Taiwan.
In May 2008 HSBC acquired IL&FS Investment, an Indian retail broking firm.