Major revamping underway at HSBC Malta

Major works are underway at HSBC Malta, with a major reconstruction project on its Operations Centre underway in Qormi and with the planned refurbishment of 25 HSBC branches across the Islands by the end of the year.

The revamping of the bank’s Operations Centre is expected to be completed by the end of 2003. The end product will house 19 different departments with approximately 500 employees and all back-office functions being carried out from the premises.

25 HSBC branches will have also been completely refurbished by the end of 2002 as part of an extensive refurbishment programme, while next year work will be completed on another five branches.

HSBC CEO Chris Hothersall comments on the project, "HSBC is committed to offering its customers the best service possible and when customers come in to our branches they do not want to waste lots of time queuing.

"Although there will always be times when the branches will be particularly busy, especially at the end of every month, the exercise of centralising all back-office functions at Qormi will certainly give branch employees more time to serve customers."

The bank is also improving automated banking by replacing all ATM’s and point of sale terminals across the Islands with new machines by the end of 2004. A new call centre, which will be based at Qormi, is also being planned and will operate on a 24 hour basis.

Also underway is the integration of HSBC Overseas Bank Malta Limited (HOBM) into HSBC Bank Malta - necessary due to the expiry of HOBM’s offshore license. With the change HSBC will be launching a new International Banking Centre (IBC) – which will provide a high level service to HSBC’s non-resident client base and will operate from HSBC’s Head Office in Valletta which is being redesigned and refurbished for this purpose. "Over the past three years HSBC Bank Malta has made a great deal of progress with recent surveys showing that customer satisfaction is improving considerably despite the significant change programmes taking place in the bank.

"Furthermore, despite the difficult economic conditions, the Bank has continued to achieve excellent financial results as evidenced by the last six monthly figures. However, much remains to be done and in the months and years ahead, my colleagues and I intend to build on what has been achieved for the benefit of our customers, shareholders and the community in general," comments Chief Operating Officer Tim Fitzpatrick.