Hong Kong Sanghai Banking Corp.

Banks, like most businesses in today's "global economy" are faced with a customer community that has before it many choices with respect to how it can choose to conduct its banking business and relationships. Technology leverage is utilized by the banking industry to help in the achievement of competitive advantage. As such, banks invest heavily in information technology such that their customers can enjoy a "value-added" experience as well as "cutting-edge" service ("DBS and virtual banking," 2003).

Generally speaking, customers whether individuals or businesses, view banks as providers of a unique service. As such, creating an environment that incorporates and practices a "sense of caring" will always be an important element in the banking environment. From a general survey of the literature available, it appears that The Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) has followed most of its major competitors in making this a priority. HSBC is considered a "local" bank and has the distinction of being the first bank in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) to absorb overseas investment. Today it stands within the PRC as the bank with the largest number of foreign investors and the highest proportion of foreign ownership shares (Xuan, 2002).

Given the myriad of choices available to consumers today, the issue of customer service and customer management is probably more important than ever before within the banking community. Customer service quality im

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raising interest rates and thereby precipitating recessions, further undermining investment confidence. First Thailand, then Indonesia, and finally Korea were forced to accept deep recessions and dramatic devaluations of their currencies. Currency speculators took positions against one East Asian currency after another. For Asian firms with unhedged obligations in hard currencies, the depreciation of home currencies led to an increased level of debt service obligations at a time of reduced economic activity. Corporate bankruptcies increased and the private capital crises turned into a series of sovereign crises, with Thailand, Indonesia, and Korea approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for subsequent relief. Figure 1 details a recent historical perspective pertaining to the exchange rate fluctuation for several countries in the region. Clearly any strategy that was to be adopted for the region had to be considerate of these fluctuations while still maintaining accord with overall bank revenue, profit, and expense and asset objectives. Figure 1. Exchange Rates of Selected South East Asian Currencies from January 1997 to August 1998 (Thomas, 2000) Values on January 1, 1997: Thai Bhat (THB) = US$0.0389; Indonesian

Category: Economics - H