www.financialpost.com/magazine/story.html?id=850928 -
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Last Visited: 10/10/2008
HSBC, the self-styled "world's local bank," has grown a global retail business by following the international growth of its commercial clients, says Nick Winsor, head of personal finance for HSBC in the Asia-Pacific region."Because we were banking the companies, we tended to bank the individuals who worked for those companies to."
A slim, amiable middle-aged Brit, Winsor has been with the bank for 25 years in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Japan, Hong Kong, Brunei, India, Singapore and New York as well as the United Kingdom.He has bank accounts in five countries.
While there are several banks with global retail banking franchises - Citibank and Standard Chartered, for instance, or Scotiabank in Latin America and the Caribbean - HSBC is without a doubt the market leader and is working hard to cement that position.When HSBC talks about global retail banking services, it's worth listening.
Winsor explains that first-time expatriates - a marketing executive for a big consumer goods company that has just been transferred from Atlanta to Shanghai, for instance - can suddenly find they have more disposable income, and that makes them good customers.
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But, as Winsor says, banks in Canada and elsewhere would be thrilled with another six million wealthy clients - wherever they happen to live.