Its chairman, Sir John Bond, is adamant that the financial services company needs to deliver banking products to customers in ways that suit them, rather than the bank dictating the terms of access. It provides an opportunity to attract new customers from all over the world and to serve our existing customers better. Developed with IBM over an 18-month period, IFS will apparently allow Hong Kong based HSBC to connect, with any device its customers have, to its delivery platform. The firm introduced mobile banking in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, TV banking via its open service in the United Kingdom, Internet banking in Brazil and electronic securities trading in Australia and Canada. Still, there's not a single person who doesn't like to talk to another human being.
People buy from people and they want a relationship with people.
They also need a trusted adviser from a financial services company. In the Gulf, personal relationships are very important - but that relationship can be webified to a certain extent. That's one of our hooks. A lot of the core foundation is web-enabled. The usage of new technology in this region is increasing at an astounding velocity.