Literature on HSBC Essay

Legacy HSBC Group. HSBC Bank is a key component of the HSBC group which was specifically established for trading with India and China in the hey days of the British Raj in 1865, after a necessity for the same was felt by Thomas Sutherland who identified that Hong Kong lacked local banking facilities. The bank has been primarily dominant in the Asia Pacific region and has pioneered modern banking facilities in these areas. It is now seen to take up its earlier mantle and is creating a new wave of modernised banking in the emerging economies of East and South East Asia. Based in London and with operations around the world, HSBC Holdings plc is reported to be the biggest bank and financial services banking company in the World with operations around the World in 9,500 offices and presence in 80 countries across the globe. Its share holders are said to be spread in 100 countries. HSBC Personal Banking. HSBC has a number of progressive personal banking schemes as it calls itself the Worlds local bank. (Express Banking, 2006). Some of the initiatives it has are schemes such as express banking which is designed to save time. This includes paying a bill online, thereby encouraging internet banking, use of cash machines and mobile phone top ups. (Express Banking, 2006). The bank is also extensively offering gifts for such schemes to include attractive offers as a 42 inch Phillips Plasma television for using its cash machines. (Express Banking, 2006). Its personal insurance services are similarly attempting to induce customers to go online. Thus a 10 percent discount is offered when a person buys on line car insurance. The no claims discount limit has also been raised to 70 % and there is a monthly installment option which has also been included. (Car, 2006). It has also services which can be availed by customers by providing prior intimation of their renewal dates to the bank and once again are provided attractive prizes for the same. The mortgage services offered by HSBC are also very innovative and provide not just for a loan but complete services such as mortgage offers, choices for repayments, varied interest rate option and tailoring these to the prices. (Mortgage, 2006). There are separate services on offer to first time buyers who can also remortgage as well as use the home to borrow more. Similarly the home insurance features also offer very heavy discounts for switching to HSBC Home Insurance, promise to settle claims over the phone without completion of forms and provide for replacements. HSBC Business Banking. HSBC business banking facilities are also unique. It has 12 months free banking facility extended to a current account holder which provides for borrowing at fixed rates large sums up to ?25,000. The service also includes foreign exchange rates for foreign currency payments for HSBC net customers, provides for management of trading in China and a commercial card enables a 56 days interest free credit. Banking for business is carried out through the commercial centres which provide multiple facilities to customers. For business there are other factilities that are being provided such as business internet banking as well as HSBCnet which provides larger companies with a complete range of services on the internet including invoice finance. There are a wide range of business insurance packages that have been made available by the bank, to include virtually all the possible contingencies for which insurance is required by business such as small business for turnover less than ? 1 million or less than 10 employees, commercial packaged insurance, customer packaged insurance, business car insurance and keyman insurance for prinicpals. The insurance package also covers share holders and partners, professional indemnity and trade credit. (Insurance, 2006). International Business Banking. The international services provided by the Bank include import and export bills clearance, guarantees and documentary credit. The Bank also provides many other forms of assistance to businesses to include opening of a business overseas. (International, 2006). The debit and credit card processing facilities include acceptance of debit and credit card at the place of work, over the internet, by mail order, fax or even on telephone. The finance and loans services being provided to the business by HSBC includes flexible overdraft, cash against invoices, protection against bad debts, small business loans at fixed interest rates upto ? 25000, flexible loans, financing of commercial properties, equipment, mortgages, vehicles and so on. Business managers are also provided with cash flow management services and fixed bond rates on high interest Deposit Bonds over ? 5,000. HSBCnet is an advanced service provided for businesses which enable these to carry out futuristic online banking. This is considered ideal for small businesses who do not want to invest in an internal financial management organisation. Thus it provides tools such as cash management, reporting and trading along with analytics and research. (hsbcnet, 2006). The customers are continually provided high quality services on HSBCnet such as management of foreign currency transactions as easy as domestic transaction, payments and account transfers at par with operations of a domestic account. The basic advantage provided is that a customer does not have to change his platform to access different types of services. Chapter 4 – Findings Findings are derived from qualitative and quantitative analysis. Data analysis is meant to calculate â€Å"correlations† between variables. The intention is to find relations among the variables. Correlation is a measure of the degree of linear relationship between two variables. A positive correlation occurs when both variables either increase or decrease. Negative correlation occurs, when one variable increases and the other decreases. The detailed findings of the primary and secondary research carried out based on qualitative and quantitative collation are as per succeeding paragraphs.