Banking giant HSBC Plc may start looking outside of the UK for a new headquarters because of Britain?s high corporate taxes.

But a spokeswoman for HSBC/Bank of Bermuda refused to comment on whether Bermuda was being considered as a potential domicile.

HSBC, which completed the purchase of Bank of Bermuda last year, is set to review the location of its headquarters in six months? time, when it will take into account factors including tax, but also regulation, transport and quality of life.

The bank?s head of financial planning and tax, Chris Spooner, said in a speech at the Chartered Institute of Taxation conference last week that the bank was no longer happy with the tax situation in Britain.

A number of Lloyd?s of London insurance companies have recently announced that they are moving to Bermuda.

Omega Underwriting and Hiscox Insurance said last month they are moving their operations to Bermuda, where they would join peers Caitlin.

And Asian conglomerate Jardine Matheson moved its corporate domicile to Bermuda more than 20 years ago.

In all those cases, the companies have continued to have their operating headquarters elsewhere.

A move by HSBC out of the UK could cost the Treasury around ?371 million in lost corporation tax, The Scotsman newspaper reported.

The bank, which reviews the position of it headquarters every three years, said Britain ?was no longer an attractive place to be in terms of tax? raising the possibility that it could take its business elsewhere.

HSBC, which is Britain?s biggest bank, moved to the UK in 1993 from Hong Kong when the British Government made the move a condition of taking over Midlands Bank.

After constructing a new flagship tower in London?s Docklands, it looked like the HSBC was here to stay.

Mr Spooner said: ?The UK used to be a good place to be for tax reasons. I am not sure that is the case any more.

?We take the competitive environment seriously and there are others like us.?

Experts said the tax burden on companies has grown considerably in the past nine years under the Labour?s Party?s rule, and British tax authorities now make ?40 billion every year from corporate taxation.

They warned that if HSBC becomes the first major company to move its operations abroad, other companies could follow.

Richard Lambert, CBI director general, told The Scotsman that Britain was less tax competitive than before.

He said: ?Tax decisions are a matter for individual companies to take, but the UK?s corporate taxation system has become incredibly complex and we are less tax competitive as a country than we once were.

?Business would favour simplification of corporate taxes and a reduction in the overall level of taxation to reverse the damage that the current burden is doing to the UK?s competitiveness.?