LONDON — HSBC CEO Stuart Gulliver, two days before the British election, has criticised British policy makers for driving out global banks with higher taxes and tougher rules."The UK has rejected the concept of universal banking," Mr Gulliver told reporters on Tuesday after the bank posted a 4% rise in first-quarter profit. "We are under significant pressure from our shareholders, who don’t understand the extent to which their dividend and the growth of the company is being set back by what they perceive to be the wrong location."Europe’s largest bank is weighing whether to move its headquarters out of the UK, where rising taxes and regulations that will force it to put a firewall around the British consumer unit threaten to hurt earnings. Mr Gulliver is also under pressure to reduce costs, sell assets and improve profitability.He will update investors on his plans on June 9."I wouldn’t go by what management has to say on domicile before elections," said Chirantan Barua, an analyst ...
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