HSBC is the same bank - wherever it is! In the UK about ten years ago, HSBC bought up one of the big 4 banks (The Midland) and renamed it HSBC. They may argue it's a different bank, but it uses the advertisng logo "The worlds local bank". I asked my local branch in the UK why I was being charged transfer fees if the branch at CLK airport and the one in Oxford was part of the same local bank. They coudn't answer that, but wouldn't relent either.
So I tried a different tack. I started to take my entire months pay from my HK account out of the ATM machine (preferably late on a friday when they had just filled up the machine for the weekend) and depositing the cash into my UK account at the counter. No transfer fees! They didn't like that much but still wouldn't give me free transfers. W@nkers! I got bored with that after a while - that and the fear of geting mugged between the machine and the counter - so I paid for the transfers.
Incidently, in the UK, they use the HSBC logo but there's no mention of Hong Kong or Shanghai in any of their literature. Seems mentioning it might be bad for business!