When HSBC Holdings new chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, faces shareholders at the bank's annual meeting in London today, he will have to explain why "The World's Local Bank" won't be nearly so local going forward.

The answer lies in a legacy of overexpansion, lending blunders and technology problems that have made a retreat from retail lending in as many as 39 markets a top priority in the course correction that Gulliver plans for HSBC.