HSBC 2006 Annual Report Download - page 9

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• In Commercial Banking, we launched a new
customer referral system, which led to
international referrals with an aggregate facility
value of US$3 billion, involving over 50 sites
and 4,000 relationship managers.
• Within Group Investment Businesses, the
Group’s India, China and BRIC (Brazil, Russia,
India, China) funds were major contributors to a
record performance in the year as we leveraged
our reputation for emerging market expertise to
become a major distributor as well as manager
of such funds. Performance fees reached record
levels.
• In the UK, the Passport bank account provides
individuals newly arrived in the UK with
discounted remittance services back home
together with guidance on establishing
themselves in the UK.
• Corporate, Investment Banking and Markets’
strategy to be a leading wholesale bank by
focusing on financing and emerging markets
was recognised by industry awards including
European Loan House of the Year, China Loan
House of the Year and Asian Domestic Currency
Bond House of the Year by International
Financing Review. Our Global Markets business
was named Best at Treasury and Risk
Management in Asia by Euromoney for the
ninth consecutive year.
Leveraging our global services
HSBC continued to deepen its relevance to its
customer base by offering coordinated services on a
worldwide scale. As the globalisation of business
increasingly becomes the norm, international
capabilities become more and more critical to an
ever wider range of customers. We responded to this
trend by developing our business in a number of
ways.
Benefiting from growing international trade, the
Group’s payments and cash management business
had a record year, particularly in Asia, as increasing
numbers of commercial customers expanded
internationally.
As emerging market stock exchanges
outperformed, the Group’s custody businesses
benefited from the higher volumes and value flowing
into emerging market equities. HSBC retained its
position as the leading sub-custodian in Asia and the
Middle East, being ranked first in 19 of the
28 markets it serves. Growth in both assets under
custody and assets under administration exceeded
25 per cent, as interest in emerging market equities
increased and the alternative fund management
sector expanded.
The customer base of International Premier, the
Group’s personal banking service targeted at affluent
customers with financial needs in more than one
country, grew by 35 per cent to reach 1.8 million. We
see great opportunities to develop this service
further.
Cross-border distribution was a noteworthy
feature of many HSBC-led debt capital market and
equity capital market transactions. Highlights
included: America Movil’s 8 billion Mexican peso
bond, Khazanah Nasional of Malaysia’s
US$750 million Islamic exchangeable ‘Sukuk’;
Emaar Economic City’s US$680 million IPO in
Saudi Arabia; and Shui On Land’s US$876 million
IPO in Hong Kong.
Transferring best practice
HSBC seeks to transfer best practice and product
innovation internationally. Through such linkages,
HSBC is able to achieve both cost efficiency and
speed to market, giving us competitive advantages
over purely domestic or regional peers. In 2006, we
launched a number of successful initiatives.
Using Group technology and marketing
expertise, we expanded the Group’s card base in
Asia by some 1.9 million to 11.9 million. In addition,
Bank of Communications’ cards business in
mainland China, with which we cooperate, reached
over 2 million cards in issue at the end of the year
from its launch in May 2005.
Also in mainland China, we cooperated with
Bank of Communications in launching point of sale
finance in partnership with Wal-Mart and SuNing,
one of China’s largest consumer electronics chain. In
Argentina, our relationship with C&A added
100,000 cards, while in Australia we entered the
retail storecard market and now offer point of sale
finance in over 1,000 locations through over
100 merchants.
We took the successful direct retail deposit
service introduced in the US at the end of 2005 and
used the experience to launch in Taiwan in
September 2006. In the first 15 weeks, over
24,000 customers had signed up for the service and
US$182 million had been raised in deposits. In the
US, by the end of 2006, the direct deposit product
had raised some US$7 billion of funding for our
businesses there.
Building on our experience of Takaful (Islamic
insurance) in Singapore and United Arab Emirates,
we were among the first to be awarded licences to