Geneva, Switzerland–based HSBC, one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organizations with $382 billion in total assets under management, also operates the world’s third-largest fund-of-funds business through HSBC Alternative Investments Limited (HAIL). London–based HAIL was an early investor in some of the biggest and best-performing hedge funds in the world, from $15 billion Lansdowne Partners in 2001 to $40 billion Brevan Howard Asset Management in 2003. As investors pulled money out of the hedge fund-of-funds industry following the 2008 financial crisis, HAIL’s assets dropped from a 2008 peak…