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UBS AG will stop sponsoring the Hong Kong Open golf tournament, while HSBC Holdings Plc may not renew its backing of Asia’s richest women’s event.

UBS, Switzerland’s second-largest bank, won’t renew as title sponsor in Hong Kong after November’s edition, the Zurich-based company said in a statement today. HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, will decide in the next two months whether to continue backing the HSBC Champions women’s tournament, held the past two years in Singapore, said Giles Morgan, head of sponsorship.

Banks, among professional golf’s biggest supporters, are reviewing sponsorships amid the global financial crisis that’s wiped 65 percent off the MSCI financials index in the past year. UBS received a $59.2 billion bailout from the Swiss government, while HSBC plans to raise 12.5 billion pounds ($17.3 billion) in the U.K.’s biggest rights offering.

“Whatever our business needs, sponsorship will simply attach itself to help in that,” Morgan said in an interview. “That is the process. There is no other process. We’re not a golf brand.”

UBS has backed the $2.5 million Hong Kong tournament, co- sanctioned by the European and Asian Tours, since 2005, when prize money was $700,000. Organizers are searching for a title sponsor to take over after the Nov. 12-15 tournament.

“UBS is extremely proud of the central role it has played in establishing the Hong Kong Open as one of the most prestigious championships in Asian golf,” Rory Tapner, chairman of UBS in Asia-Pacific, said in the statement.

Women’s Event

HSBC had a five-year agreement with the LPGA that expired after South Korea’s Shin Ji Yai won the $3 million Champions event two days ago. The London-based bank ran the women’s World Match Play in the U.S. for the first three years before holding the Champions tournament in 2008 and 2009. It also stages the men’s Champions event in Shanghai in November.

“I’m very pleased with the (women’s) tournament but what I need to do is take all the metrics and measures and identify whether we think the whole platform is right for the business in terms of what we need to do in Asia,” Morgan added. “That’s got less to do with golf and more to do with our business needs.”

Wells Fargo & Co. last month removed the name of its Wachovia Corp. unit from a professional golf event in the U.S. and said it won’t host clients there. Senator John Kerry had criticized Northern Trust Corp. for sponsoring another tournament after taking government money. HSBC has not received state funds.

The LPGA Tour already dropped three tournaments for 2009, citing the global economic crisis. The future of its season- ending event in Houston remains in doubt because title sponsor Stanford Group Co. has been accused by U.S. regulators of defrauding investors.

(Source: Bloomberg)