Chief Executive Officer of HSBC, Pakistan, Guy Priestley, on Wednesday announced that the HSBC has increased the capital invested in Pakistan by 50 percent or Rs 500 million. The HSBC now has Rs 1.5 billion in capital, dedicated to the Pakistan market. This is only the first step: a further increase of Rs 500 million will follow in 2005.
Priestley said that this was a very emphatic statement of the HSBC''s commitment to the growing Pakistan financial sector and general economy.
"HSBC is one of the world''s largest and most profitable banks, but we are also proud of our long-term view and commitment to the societies in which we operate.
"Although we are a foreign bank, during the 22 years we have been in Pakistan, we have seen many changes and endured many vicissitudes side by side with the Pakistani people.
"It is with great pleasure that we have seen the return to solid and sustainable growth in recent years. This has given us the confidence to bring more investment into Pakistan and increase our capital here. We hope our many loyal customers will join us in celebrating this step, which will, in turn, enable us to improve and expand the services we offer them, "said Priestley.
He further said 2004 had been a very good year for the HSBC group''s relations with Pakistan, not least when in October the government of Pakistan selected HSBC to co-lead its first sovereign Islamic bond issue.
Priestley said: "During 2005, we look forward to further increasing our capital, and will be spending almost one million dollars on new technology to improve our customer services, introduce corporate internet banking and generally help our customer maintain the edge they need in today''s fast-growing but intensely competitive economy.
"HSBC in Pakistan is a full-service bank, providing corporate banking, trade finance, treasury and personal banking services from its two branches in Karachi.
"The HSBC Group is 140 years old and one of the largest banking and financial services organisations in the world. It has large businesses in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa.
"The HSBC group has about 10,000 offices in 76 countries with assets of 1,154 billion dollars as at 30 June 2004.-PR
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