HSBC is to launch its first UK “wealth centre” in London’s upmarket Mayfair district, offering more personalised banking services and exclusive events such as wine tastings as part of a drive to win more rich customers.
The lender will take up two floors of the 16-storey Smithson Tower at 25 St James’s Street – close to the Ritz Hotel and Fortnum & Mason department store – as part of a wider revamp of HSBC’s premier-tier bank service. Aimed at the sought-after “mass affluent” market, premier is a tier below private-banking clients and targets customers with £100,000 to £2m in income, assets or deposits.
The 8,000 sq ft wealth centre, which is due to open by summer 2025, will give premier clients access to a front-of-house concierge team, catering services and a barista coffee bar, alongside 12 high-spec meeting rooms with panoramic views of London to meet HSBC team of dedicated relationship bankers.
“We may do serious business and financial planning there during the day, but in the evening … there could be wine tasting with a couple of our corporate clients,” said Jose Carvalho, head of wealth and personal banking at HSBC UK.
It follows the launch of similar HSBC wealth centres across Asia, including Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Malaysia, where a push into wealth management has helped prop up the London-headquartered lender’s profits.
HSBC’s global wealth and private banking division was managing $1.19tn of customer assets as of December last year, up 17% from 2022. Its made revenues of about $7.5bn, accounting for 11% of the group’s $66bn revenues for 2023.
HSBC’s new chief executive, Georges Elhedery, is now doubling down on wealth management as part of a wider organisation shake-up and cost cuts announced last month. Carvalho has been tasked with doubling assets under management at HSBC’s UK wealth business to about £100bn over the next five years, in a move that would make HSBC one of the top five wealth managers in Britain.
It means that while many senior managers are scrambling to save their jobs, Carvalho has been able to go on a hiring spree, recruiting hundreds of new relationship managers and bringing more than 100 call centre staff back onshore from India, the Philippines and Egypt to improve services for wealthy customers.
Carvalho said that, while HSBC has been pushing into wealth management for years, it had been “reinforced” by the way that Elhedery “positions the company for the future”. He added: “Wealth is a big pillar of that.”
But he will have to compete with other UK high street lenders including Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays, which are also pushing more forcefully into wealth management, a stable source of income compared to more cyclical investment banking operations.
Carvalho’s revamp will offer premier customers in the UK a new 24/7 banking hotline, as well as an on-demand medical service meant to give wealthy customers second opinions on health matters. Details on the health service will be revealed in the new year.
And if the Mayfair wealth centre succeeds, more UK sites will follow. “If it goes really well, this is not something that we want just in London,” Carvalho said. “We will look in other big city centres … Manchester, the Liverpool area … [and] York.”
Source: theguardian.com
