Elena Torrijos
spoke to Diana Cesar, HSBC’s head of customer proposition and
segments, personal financial services, Asia-Pacific, about the
group’s roll-out of its Premier-branded, mass affluent product
across the region. The brand continues to sell well, she said, up
10 percent for the first half of the year.

 

Q: HSBC has managed to sign up three million people
worldwide to Premier and has made it a key part of its retail
banking strategy – is this the case in the Asia-Pacific region as
well? If so, what is the target number of customers, and where are
the key markets?

Diana Cesar: Premier is at the heart
of our Personal Financial Services strategy globally and absolutely
key in Asia-Pacific. We have seen growth of about 10 percent for
the first half of this year.

The global target number of Premier customers
is 6 million by the end of 2011 of which we expect many to come
from Asia-Pacific.

Q: What are the four or five core
markets being targeted?

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DC: Hong Kong clearly remains a very
important market.

We have another six key sites where there are
both significant existing levels of business and great potential
for growth. These are mainland China, Indonesia, Singapore, India,
Taiwan and Malaysia

Diana Cesar

Hong Kong, being the birthplace of HSBC,
continues to deliver great results. It is important to note that
the different markets are at varying stages of their
development.

There are countries where acquisition numbers
have been slower but Premier is a relatively new proposition there
and I am confident this will change moving forward.

Q: What are the targets for
Premier?

DC: Six million by the end of 2011
globally. While this is a challenging target, I believe it is most
definitely achievable if we really focus. It is the only truly
global personal banking proposition and we plan to leverage on this
as much as possible.

Q: Is the bank rolling out any
Premier branded branches, as it has done in other markets such as
the UK and Brazil?

DC: Most definitely. We currently
have 68 standalone Premier Centres in the Asia-Pacific region and
277 in total. We will increase this in a number of markets in 2010,
including China, Australia, India and Malaysia.

Q: A lot of banks in both the
Asia-Pacific region and globally are (re)focusing on the mass
affluent segment in a very big way – there was the recent and major
relaunch by Standard Chartered, of its Priority Banking service,
for instance. What are the key earnings positives from mass
affluent customers as opposed to the mass market? Are they more
loyal, do they spend more?

DC: Some of the key positives
are:

• Growing affluence means increased
consumption not only of goods but also of financial products;

• The mass affluent has growing
aspirations for financial security for the family, education for
children and retirement;

• Their financial needs are growing
as well – diversifying from cash to other investment instruments,
including insurance, mutual funds, stocks, etc; and

• They need a financial partner with
whom to navigate through their life st ages.

Q: How many Premier mass affluent
customers convert to Private Banking?

DC: This number is relatively small
in volume but there are terrific synergies between these areas as
it means we can continue to meet the needs of customers as their
wealth grows.

Q: What are the core product
demands from Premier customers? Preferential rates? Financial
advice? Loyalty programs?

DC: There are several:

• Financial know-how from a partner
they can trust for the long term, dedicated relationship managers
and comprehensive investment advice;

• International recognition – our
customers want to be recognised for their value wherever they
go;

• A ‘global safety net’ with
services such as the ability to obtain cash in an emergency and
next-day credit card replacement;

• A best-in-class MasterCard, with a
generous reward programme; and

• The ability to access and manage
all their accounts around the world using one simple internet
banking platform.

All of these demands we can meet with the HSBC
Premier proposition.

Q: HSBC stands out both globally
and in the Asia-Pacific region for not yet offering a
fully-functional mobile phone-based banking (m-banking) product.
Might this change in the near future?

DC: We provide customers with a
range of channels to access our services – branch, telephone,
internet and, to some extent and in some countries, via mobile
phone.

A number of countries use some elements of
mobile phone banking, so while we have not launched a full service
we offer a range of e-alerts plus balance information (the level of
service does vary from country to country).

We will continue to regularly review our
position on mobile phone banking and take into consideration
feedback from our customers.

Q: How has HSBC’s wealth
management business in the Asia-Pacific region changed since the
global financial crisis?

DC: Back to basics: people are
looking for simple, transparent products with capital
protection/preservation; investors are reading more about
investment strategy and educating themselves.

The sentiment seems to be improving and people
are more willing to take risks than earlier.