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THE Philippine unit of Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking
Corp. Ltd. (HSBC) said it is expanding its network and has moved
some of its branches to more strategic locations as it grows its
business in the country.
Mark Watkinson, HSBC Philippines
president and chief executive, said its locally-incorporated HSBC
Savings Bank (Philippines) would open a new branch in Alabang during
the first half of this year after it relocated branches to Rockwell
in Makati, Parañaque, Mall of Asia in Pasay and Pampanga during the
first two months this year.
At end-March it will transfer a
branch in Quezon City while its Cubao, Araneta branch would be
repositioned within the commercial center by April. By year-end it
would have 25 branches and 2,400 employees.
HSBC would also take advantage of
the quality and cheap labor force in the country by adding its
second call center operations along Commonwealth Ave within the next
two weeks. The new call center would initially require at least
2,000 new agents, bringing the total to 9,000, including those who
are already working in its contact centers in Alabang, Ortigas,
Makati and Fort Bonifacio, Junie Veloso, HSBC senior vice-president,
said.
HSBC remains upbeat about its
business prospects with the expanding economy as shown by the latest
gross domestic product (GDP) growth and better fiscal position,
Watkinson said.
Veloso, who heads the bank’s
corporate banking division, said that despite the political turmoil
and the shaky global markets, there is no marked decrease yet in the
amount of money foreign investors place in the local market.
HSBC’s corporate banking acts as a custodian for big foreign
institutional investors who invest in the local bourse and it is
currently the leading institution in this segment of the business,
he added.
Veloso said it is usually the
foreign investors who exit first the local market with the slightest
sign of unrest in the country. At present this is not yet the case,
he said and the funds just stay with the custodian until such time
investors are ready to enter the market.
--Likha C. Cuevas-Miel
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