Indeed, although they were trying to have their cake and eat it by buying up more shares in HSBC (increasing their holding) when the price was low, then getting irritated that they were not getting dividends. You don’t expect dividends when the share price isn’t doing well!
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HSBC doesn’t really bother with the every-person market in China. They probably expect them to make the same steps they’ve made elsewhere by restricting to the premium, profitable market.
I think it’s only the UK and Hong Kong where they still offer the 99% banking services. I suppose I’m lucky enough to qualify for Premier, their worldwide service is excellent for people living with two different currencies and banking systems and no one else really compared.
There’s Citi but that’s somewhat of a level above me.
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Yes, their focus was never really on “mass appeal” banking products, even back when they operated in many more countries than they do now. It has really always been a premium-focused bank.
The HK and UK situation is a legacy thing really - Hong Kong because that was it’s original home market, and the UK because Midland Bank (which did offer general banking products, rather than targeted premium ones) was acquired by them, so they bought in loads of “average Joe” customers almost by accident, along with everything else from the acquisition that they did want!
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They offer excellent mortgages in the UK, so I suppose that’s a big market for them.
Kind of risk free in a way because if someone defaults on the house, they get the house. In the UK market that’s not really ever going to lead to a loss because our houses keep raising in value.
Annoying for me though because I wanted a mortgage being an expat, was directed to HSBC Expat to open an account and all of that only to be told that I’m not eligible.
Turns out HSBC Offshore only cater to the extreme wealthy. At least I got a few debit cards out of it to add to my collection.
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Yes, there are many levels of wealthy at HSBC, haha!
Off the top of my head:
- Standard
- Advance
- Premier
- Jade
——
- HSBC Expat (offshore in CI or IoM)
- HSBC Private Bank (Switzerland-style)
I say that as a total pleb with only a standard account myself, but at least they let me open a Euro account.
I think Expat should be between Premier and Jade. I certainly don’t qualify for Jade but I’ve got Premier and Expat premier.
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It kind of stops at Jade and then the others are legally-separate branches of HSBC anyway, so there isn’t a linear hierarchy as such (that’s an oversimplification).
I’ll put a line across to indicate the separation instead.
Anyway, regardless of the exact ranking, product segmentation in general is far more obvious at HSBC than most banks - so clearly they are trying to preserve as much exclusivity as possible.
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I wonder how the premium tiers at other banks compare. Especially because of every other banks lack of an international presence.
The worldwide account servicing option from HSBC is top-notch. I’ve never set foot in the US but I’ve got a US ‘checking’ account and credit card from them with a generous limit. Excellent for international spending with no fees and I can pay the balance from any currency. Downside is that transfers internally with HSBC use their own exchange rate which isn’t exactly market leading.
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Yes, none are really comparable to HSBC except maybe at the lower tiers. Certainly they are the best for global reach.
Taking Lloyds as an example, you have:
- Classic = HSBC Bank Account
- Club Lloyds = HSBC Advance
- Lloyds Private Banking = HSBC Premier equivalent, not real private banking
There then is no higher tier at all, or anything with global links. They do have an international division but it’s basically just for keeping money offshore like HSBC Expat.
Santander have branches in quite a few other countries and there is some access to them if you are a Select customer (their Premier equivalent, again).
I don’t think any other bank helps you set up accounts abroad like HSBC.
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HSBC’s UK operations are profitable.
Ironically, HSBC used to be the biggest shareholder in Ping An.
HSBC used to offer full retail banking in lots more countries - sadly no longer. Very few countries such as Japan were HSBC Premier only.
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They didn’t break it down further. I highly doubt that their UK basic retail consumer market is anywhere nearly as profitable as the Premier and International customers.
They did break it down further:
WPB UK = Their UK Wealth and Personal Banking operations.
Some of the slides may be interesting as they also mention Monzo.
The wealth side was relatively small
Interesting that elsewhere they plan to double FD customers by 2026…
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Do you have a link, please?
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The slides are from the 16 June 2022 presentation at Investor events and presentations | HSBC Holdings plc
Their is also a webcast and some interesting stats about their IT spend there
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I think they need to do something about First Direct. At the moment, their brand seems all over the place and im not entirely sure who they are really targeting anymore.
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I know, but arguably it has never been their focus - even back then, it was more of a side element of the business.
That sounds ambitious when First Direct seem to make changes very slowly and conservatively; very little is different now than when then-boss Joe Gordon announced plans for a radical overhaul. However, I agree with @Lightning720 that the brand is a mess and needs attention.
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I would actually love to see this, the whole FD brand and app look super nice I think.
I had heard it was going to be “the next Monzo” bit that was under the tenure of the old boss and It feels like they don’t know what to do with it anymore.
Shame
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Well, according to that deck that was posted above, HSBC are going to make first direct the “challenger of challengers”.
OK hun. I’ll believe that when I see it babes.
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I’d love to see spending notifications, open banking in the same black and white format, and a form of pots/spaces.
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I’ll believe it when I see it too, they’ve said this for a few years now and nothing much as changed.
Hopefully it might start to soon
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