Household HSBC Watch

Nov 12, 2004

The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) will transfer some of the operations of its global processing center of its main unit in Hong Kong and in the US to the Philippines by end of next year, picking Manila ahead of other Asian countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Visiting HSBC chief executive officer for Asia Pacific Michael Smith told reporters that the new center would employ additional 3,000 employees. The center will also do a range of activities such as call center for the region, processing and operations works, credit analysis and collections, among others.

“The Philippines is a logical choice because the culture is very accepting [to our customers] and the good quality of English [of the call-center agents],” Smith said, adding that the company still has to finalize the type of operations that it would transfer to the country.

Smith, who said that HSBC’s business operations in the country is encouraging, recalled that he earlier talked with the company managers from the US to convince them to transfer some activities to Manila.

“They expect that the quality [of work in the Philippines] will be better compared with the US. And their [Filipino call-center operators] are reaching levels consistent with the US [standards],” he said.

Household - HSBC Watch, a consumer advocacy group in the US, said there is less risk in training new workers than re-training the “once predatory, pay-for-performance employees of the old Household International, by trying to get them to understand the laws they have been breaking over the years.”