HSBC
Remaining at the top is not easy, and improving from that position requires great skills. Furthermore, the quest for world domination could easily detach the conqueror from its home bases.
Recognised as one of the truly international banks, HSBC has not lost sight of its adoptive home market, the UK, since the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation took over Midland Bank in 1992.
With its 1500 branches and 4000 employees, HSBC serves 15 million personal customers and one million business customers in the UK, and keeps on going from strength to strength.
HSBC’s financial performance is the obvious indicator of its success. And its investment in infrastructure indicates trust and commitment to the local market. In the past year, HSBC invested more than £400m (€268m) on redeveloping its branches, £50m on new free cash machines and about £20m on new internet services for UK personal and commercial customers.
“The real winners of this award are the people working for our bank,” said Dyfrig John, HSBC’s UK CEO. “It is thanks to their talent and commitment that our customers trust us with their business thus ensuring our continued success. Ours is an industry undergoing considerable change as we all seek to respond to customers’ rapidly evolving needs and to create a modern retailing environment. It is a great credit to my colleagues that HSBC is leading this with such high levels of customer recommendation and I am delighted to accept this award on their behalf.”
