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In the first six months of 2005, HSBC Bank Malta’s operating income rose more than 10 per cent when compared with the first six months of 2004. Over the same period this year, the bank’s cost to income ratio also improved to 47.5 per cent evidencing a strong underlying performance. Of particular interest to shareholders is the near 100 per cent increase in the gross dividend per share.
These and other details about HSBC Bank Malta p.l.c. financial performance and business plans were presented during a meeting for the bank’s local shareholders. The meeting, which discussed current developments at HSBC as well as strategies for the future, was addressed by HSBC Chairman, Albert Mizzi, and Chief Executive Officer, Shaun Wallis. The Bank’s Management team were also present to answer questions from shareholders.
“HSBC is committed to all its stakeholders, be they shareholders, customers, staff or the local community,” said Wallis. “We aim to remain the preferred Bank and recognised for giving customers a fair deal and excellent service. We feel that meetings with our shareholders provide a vital opportunity for feedback that is invaluable for an organisation that wants to build for the future.”
Wallis explained the continuing improvement in the underlying performance of the Bank over the last three years. He also spoke about the increasing investment in and use of technology, which is instrumental for HSBC to deliver a better service to customers through automation and electronic services, and to the back office to improve processing and decision-making in support of the front office.
Some of the highlights of the significant increase in business volumes mentioned include the fact that 31,000 customers are now subscribed to HSBC’s personal internet banking service with monthly internet transactions nearing 500,000. HSBC’s call centre is now also handling some 400,000 enquiries every year, while 662,000 transactions per month are occurring through ATMs. The use of HSBC’s mobile services, launched in February 2005, has also increased with 11,000 registered users by the end of August 2005. These rates of usage for automated services now mean that 78 per cent of all transactions between HSBC and its customers are conducted through automation and electronic services, improving customer access and convenience.
HSBC is also currently rolling out almost 1,600 new electronic point of sales (EPOS) terminals for shops, hotels and restaurants.
Wallis explained that with these new machines the time taken to process card transactions will decrease from 28 seconds to just 9 seconds, for those outlets that use dial-up service, while those outlets using ADSL or cable internet can now process transactions in just 2 seconds. This follows the completion of work to upgrade all of the 65 ATMs and 21 deposit machines.
HSBC’s strategy is to organise its operations around different customer segments and to focus on their specific needs. This strategy has resulted in excellent results for HSBC Malta this year. In personal financial services, commercial banking and in corporate, investment banking and Markets, the bank has continued to perform strongly and is ahead of projections for the year in all main areas.
The meeting also discussed initiatives HSBC is taking in the community. This year the bank will be donating some Lm250,000 to various Community organsiations, apart from other commercial sponsorships such as the Commonwealth Business Forum which HSBC is the main sponsor. This includes the bank’s three funds, the HSBC Cares For Children Fund, the HSBC Cares for the Environment Fund and the HSBC Cares for Malta’s Heritage Fund, which will be formally launched in the coming days. Since 1999, HSBC has donated a total of over Lm800,000 to these community programmes. Other initiatives include the launching of an Equal Opportunities Diversity Policy and the participation of 24 more HSBC Malta employees in various Earthwatch research projects around the world.
“As in previous years, this meeting provided a really good opportunity for us to meet HSBC’s local shareholders and to talk with them about our Bank. There are some 3,800 Maltese who own just about 30 per cent of HSBC Bank Malta p.l.c. with the balance held by the HSBC Group. As the world’s local bank, their views are important and relevant to us at HSBC and many good suggestions made to us have been put into action,” said Albert Mizzi.
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