HSBC 2012 Annual Report Download - page 69

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Overview Operating & Financial Review Corporate Governance Financial Statements Shareholder Information
• In Business Banking, we continued to attract
and serve an increasing number of international
SMEs and further differentiated our service
offering to them by extending our global
network of specialist International Relationship
Managers (‘IRM’s) who focus on high value
international clients. During 2012, we added
over 165 IRMs in France, Brazil and the UK
and plan to expand the model into other key
Business Banking markets in 2013.
• We continued to support SMEs through the
economic recovery, with a particular focus
on those with international aspirations. In the
first half of 2012, we launched an international
SME fund in the UK to support UK businesses
that trade, or aspire to trade, internationally.
By the end of 2012, we had approved lending
through the fund of £5.1bn (US$8.2bn),
exceeding our original target of £4.0bn
(US$6.5bn), and provided £12bn (US$20bn) of
gross new lending to UK SMEs, including the
renewal of overdraft and other lending facilities.
Over 80% of small business lending
applications received during the year were
approved. Similarly, in the UAE, we launched
our third SME fund of AED1bn (US$272m)
targeted at international trade customers.
• Our global expertise helped connect our
customers with new market opportunities. We
held three ‘Global Connections International
Exchanges’ in Brazil, mainland China and
Dubai in 2012, where we were joined by clients
from all of our top 20 markets who were able to
make contacts, share their specialist market
knowledge and identify new business
opportunities.
Strong partnership with global businesses
• Our collaboration with GB&M has delivered
nearly US$0.7bn in incremental gross revenue
since 2010. Gross revenues from sales of
GB&M products to CMB customers which are
shared across the two global businesses grew
by over US$0.1bn in 2012 or by 5%, mainly
driven by sales of foreign exchange products.
• We continued to benefit from GB&M’s e-FX
platform to deliver our standard foreign
exchange products to customers more
efficiently. We also addressed demand for
alternative sources of finance, providing our
customers with access to debt and equity capital
markets and offering specialised financing, such
as Project and Export Finance, via GB&M.
• Dedicated executives are now in place in both
CMB and GPB to promote cross-business
referral activities and support the collaboration
between the businesses. For example, the Global
Priority Clients initiative was launched in 2012
to service the Group’s largest ultra-high net
worth clients’ corporate and personal needs
jointly.
• In 2012, we launched our trade credit insurance
offering in Hong Kong, Brazil and the UK. It
will be rolled out to further markets in the first
half of 2013, including Turkey, France,
Singapore and Malaysia.
Simplify processes and enhance risk management
controls by adopting a global operating model
• The successful adoption of a global model has
enabled us to deliver a number of benefits,
notably simplified processes for our customers,
enhanced governance and compliance oversight,
and sustainable cost savings across the business.
• We have made significant progress in
simplifying and reducing the time to complete
our credit renewal process, implementing
improvements in 17 key markets with further
countries in scope for the first quarter of 2013.
In addition, we have deployed a consistent
model for cross-border account opening to
facilitate the on-boarding of new international
customers.
• The sustainable cost savings of over US$100m
achieved through process re-engineering and
organisational effectiveness have been
reinvested in both front line staff and our Risk
and Compliance function. We introduced
enhanced consistent Know Your Customer
procedures, a global product governance board
and dedicated resources to improve governance
oversight. This investment, combined with our
values-based approach to relationship
management, is helping to foster a disciplined
and constructive culture of risk management
in CMB while encouraging balanced and
sustainable growth.