HSBC taps consumer banker to head China operation
HSBC taps consumer banker to head China operation
Dow Jones Shanghai
HSBC Holdings Plc. plans to install a retail banker as head of its China business, reflecting how foreign banks are redirecting their focus toward consumers in the world's most populous nation.
Bank sources over the weekend said P. Dicky Yip, a senior executive in HSBC's Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. consumer banking division, is slated to become chief executive for China business.
"The position is being planned, and is subject to approval by the (Hongkong Bank) board," Yip confirmed in a brief telephone interview on Sunday. He declined further comment.
Bank spokespeople in Shanghai and Hong Kong couldn't be reached. The staffing change in China follows the rotation of top bank officers in other Asian countries, including India and Malaysia.
Eddie Wang, who has been chief China representative since the bank moved its China division to Shanghai from Hong Kong in May 2000, is expected to take an HSBC position in the U.S. He couldn't be reached Sunday.
When China joined the World Trade Organization in late 2001, terms called on Beijing to offer foreign banks full access to its consumers in five years. HSBC has said repeatedly it expects China to fulfill its commitment.
Global banking heavyweights such as Standard Chartered Bank and Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank have increasingly adjusted their China operations toward retail banking, according to analysts.
Yip's background in Hong Kong's ultra-competitive consumer banking market - he is senior executive and deputy head of personal financial services - is just the latest sign that the HSBC group too is looking forward to the day it can do more business directly with China's consumers in the local currency.
Yip's duties in Hong Kong involved him in Hongkong Bank's retirement fund business and the controversial adjustment of account fees in the late 1990s. He previously managed the bank's U.S. West Coast operations in the mid-1980s.
"This is a golden opportunity to go into the local (consumer) market," Wang, the outgoing country head, said earlier this month. "We are moving toward a fuller opening of the market."
Wang spoke at an unveiling of HSBC's "premier" banking service in Shanghai, which is aimed at attracting deposits from rich Chinese.
Such services don't go far toward reaching the average Chinese. HSBC's "premier" banking is primarily geared toward those who can maintain foreign currency balances of US$50,000 and have access to an HSBC outlet in Shanghai.
HSBC's nine branches and two representative offices in China do most of their business with foreign companies operating in the country, and don't yet figure very prominently in the books of HSBC.
Although it has never broken out details of its mainland China business, HSBC is one of the world's biggest banking groups, with operations spanning the globe. It reported global pretax earnings of US$5.46 billion in the year to June.
Full Chinese consumer banking may be sometime away for HSBC but the planned change in its China command is highly symbolic for the bank group, which sees the country as a huge future growth market.
HSBC also takes pride in Shanghai roots that date to 1865 and the fact that it operates from one of the most prominent addresses in the city's modern Pudong financial district.
HSBC's recent strategy in China also involves the purchase of strategic minority stakes in local financial services firms. It bought 8.0 percent of the local Bank of Shanghai commercial last year and is negotiating a similar-sized stake China's second- largest insurer, Shenzhen-based Ping An Insurance Co. of China Ltd.
It also has local-currency payment alliances with the country's four biggest state-owned banks.