The world's local bank - HSBC

HSBC FRANCE
Report of the Board of Directors to the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders
In January 2005, HSBC France presented its 2008
“Efficacité pour la croissance” (Managing for
growth) strategic plan and the HSBC brand was rolled
out across France in November.
HSBC France continued to strengthen its positions in
many areas, including personal financial services,
commercial banking, asset management and structured
products. HSBC France’s development is supported by
the quality of its customer base and of its staff, along with
the HSBC Group’s contribution in terms of international
presence, financial power and technological skills.
HSBC France’s development, organisation
and systems
Implementation of the strategic plan
Since the strategic plan was presented in January 2005,
the whole company has taken part in a range
of initiatives across the bank’s various business segments
and has therefore played an active role in
implementing this plan, which will enable the HSBC
Group to significantly improve its positions in target
markets in France.
The roll-out of the HSBC brand in France is a
core part of the strategic plan and a major phase in
HSBC France’s development. It will give a major
boost to growth. By adopting the HSBC name in
France, HSBC France is associating itself with the
29th most valuable brand in the world, as ranked by
the consultancy Interbrand. In France, the aim is to
attain new scale through determined long-term
initiatives, and to ensure that HSBC sets the standard
in France in terms of the breadth and quality of its
service. In the spring of 2005, CCF started to raise
awareness of the HSBC brand in France through a
campaign in which each letter of the HSBC name
was used to illustrate the bank’s activities and
products.
In parallel, a major advertising campaign at
French airports was launched in the summer,
with the HSBC brand appearing on the external walls
of aircraft aerobridges and on many airport trolleys.
Internal walkways also displayed 24 different HSBC
visuals. The start of this three-year campaign marked
a major phase in the bank’s rebranding.
After informing and consulting staff representative
bodies and following the May/June 2005 agreement
with the Comité des Etablissements de Crédit et des
Entreprises d’Investissement (France’s bank licensing
committee), CCF and certain banking subsidiaries –
Banque Hervet, Banque de Baecque Beau, Banque
de Picardie and UBP – changed their corporate name
on 1 November 2005 and became HSBC France,
HSBC Hervet, HSBC de Baecque Beau, HSBC
Picardie and HSBC UBP, adopting the HSBC brand.
The HSBC brand was officially launched in France
on 8 November 2005. On that day, 380 branches that
previously operated under the CCF, Banque Hervet,
Banque de Baecque Beau, UBP and Banque de Picardie
brands adopted the HSBC brand. On 8 November,
the HSBC-branded network had 50 per cent more
branches than the previous CCF-branded network,
with more than half of its branches in the Paris region.
The advertising campaign launched on 8 November
highlighted HSBC’s market position in France: “It is
crucial for banks to understand different points of view.
For HSBC, this means having an open mind”. To mark
the rebranding, HSBC France launched an extensive
media campaign lasting almost three months and
covering radio, press, TV and cinema.
The adoption of the HSBC brand by the five retail
networks was accompanied by a new commercial
organisation, headed by a unified retail banking
management team. The networks’ operations were
also integrated in order to unify the commercial
offering, providing individuals and companies with
an improved and simplified range of services. The
new offering aims to meet customers’ needs as closely
as possible. This involves simplified day-to-day
banking operations, a family-based and global
approach, easy access for individual customers to the
services offered by the Group’s global network,
pricing based on the closeness of the client’s relationship
with the bank, and improvements in the product
range through the input of the HSBC Group.
Alongside the rebranding, and in accordance
with the strategic plan presented in January 2005,
consultations are taking place with staff representative
bodies about plans to merge the five banks adopting
the HSBC brand and to streamline the processing of
their banking transactions. The aim is to implement
these plans from 2006.
The employee relations aspect of the strategic
plan led to the signing of an employment management
agreement in March 2005, covering the
entities involved in the reorganisation arising from
the plan. Until 2008, this agreement will facilitate the
skills development and reorganisation required under
the plan. It sets out the principles to which the bank
is committed:
– giving priority to internal mobility and ensuring
that no compulsory redundancies take place;
– ensuring equal treatment for employees, regardless
of which group company they work for, in order
to gain the broadest support for changes.
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