HSBC Bank (Taiwan) Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) aims to advance its wealth management business by launching new services including family financial planning, online trading in foreign stocks and providing access to nine foreign currencies without charging handling fees.
“Competition for wealth management business is very intense in the nation, just like other sectors in the banking industry, so we have to update our programs to stay competitive,” HSBC Taiwan retail banking and wealth management head Linda Yip (葉清玉) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
The bank provides Premier services, including financial consulting, preferential mortgage rates and fast-track approvals, for clients who have more than NT$3 million (US$96,634) in their accounts, Yip said.
Photo courtesy of HSBC Bank (Taiwan) Ltd
In a bid to expand its customer base, the bank has announced that clients’ family members, such as their spouses and children, would be provided the Premier benefits if they link their accounts to the client’s account, she said.
“The family members can check and manage their accounts independent of each other, which is important for people who value privacy. But the link between the accounts will make transfers between family members more convenient and we will provide family wealth consulting accordingly,” HSBC Taiwan senior vice president Lucy Tseng (曾詩如) said.
HSBC’s family relationship managers would integrate the financial situation of the family, and provide professional advice to help clients achieve their personal and family financial planning goals, Tseng said.
The bank has also launched the HSBC Everyday Global Visa Debit Card, with which clients can exchange New Taiwan dollars to nine foreign currencies through the bank’s Web site without paying any handling fees.
The currencies are the euro, British pound, US dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Japanese yen, Singapore dollar, Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar.
This is the first time in the nation that a bank is offering access to nine foreign currencies, Yip said, adding that “most of our clients are involved in international matters and hold more than three foreign currencies at the same time.”
After exchanging their NT dollars into foreign currencies, the clients can use the card to make payments overseas without worrying about exchange-rate fluctuations, she said.
The bank would later this month launch a real-time trading platform called “HSBC i-Invest” to allow its clients to invest in US equity markets and Hong Kong stocks, Tseng said, adding that clients would be charged a transaction fee of 0.3 percent, much lower than securities brokers.
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