HSBC North America Holdings will move its legal headquarters from Illinois back to New York City in January, as the British banking giant refocuses its U. S. strategy on basic banking and credit cards, not consumer finance.

The umbrella holding company for HSBC Bank USA, HSBC Bank Canada and the remaining pieces of HSBC Finance will now be based out of HSBC Bank USA’s headquarters at 452 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan.

Brendan P. McDonagh, HSBC Group managing director and North America chief executive officer, will relocate from Mettawa, Ill., to New York as part of the move, which brings the focus of the London-based global bank back to the Empire State for the first time since 2003.

That’s when HSBC bought the former consumer finance giant Household International for $15.5 billion in a bid to tap a burgeoning market and expertise that later turned out to be a near-disaster for the otherwise conservative bank. The company’s aggressive expansion in subprime mortgage lending nationwide led to billions of dollars in losses over several years that brought down profits for the overall group.

HSBC has since shut down its national mortgage, auto and consumer finance lending, including the entire network of what used to be more than 1,000 Beneficial and HFC branches, as well as its national mortgage brokerage business. It’s now running off those loans over several years.

Instead, the company is targeting growth in its U. S. bank, formerly Buffalo-based Marine Midland Bank. HSBC already has a dominant statewide branch network in New York, but it has been expanding in select markets nationwide by opening branches in communities with international populations to which it can appeal.

The change “is in line with the stated strategy” to focus on the commercial and retail bank and the credit card business “as well as the global connectivity of these business lines,” spokesman Neil Brazil said in a news release.

However, it will not have a “material” employee impact on either New York or Mettawa, as there will not be a major move of other staff, Brazil noted. HSBC employs about 5,000 in the Chicago area and about 6,000 in metropolitan Buffalo.

“It’s not going to be a significant move of people between either buildings,” Brazil said.

Separately, HSBC agreed in October to sell its Manhattan headquarters complex on Fifth Avenue to an Israeli holding company for $330 million in cash and lease it back. The bank will lease the entire 29-floor building for the first year but then consolidate operations on 11 floors for the next 10 years. That could result in jobs moving to Buffalo, Brazil said, although officials do not yet have final details.

McDonagh’s move also brings him back to more familiar territory. The Irish-born banker was based in Buffalo from 2002 to 2004, including two years as chief operating officer of HSBC Bank USA.

This is the second major CEO relocation for HSBC. Group CEO Michael F. Geoghegan is moving his office from corporate headquarters in London to Hong Kong as part of an effort to re-emphasize the company’s historic roots in Asia and focus on new opportunities to grow in emerging markets. HSBC started as Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp. in 1865 to fund trade in silk and tea between Asia and Europe.