HSBC - the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation
As far as I know, there are no banks do better than HSBC (the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation), the world's local bank, in terms of international banking business.
If you travel abroad on a regulor basis, or you are an immigrant yourself, especially from the Third World, such as China, HSBC should be your first choice for both private and business banking.
Last week, HSBC said that its chief executive would be moving his base of operations from London to Hong Kong, a move that apparently reflects the global economy’s “gravitational shift” from West to East, and most importantly, this is a move that reflects its global management and the development of global financial services. Of course as HSBC customer, we will benefit from the bank's international banking service.
The Credit crunch and the economic resession has resulted in many local banks going bust or nationlized or bailed out by their government, but HSBC seems doing well, and becomes even stronger.
From my own experiences, HSBC's international money transfer is the fastest, resonable price, and most reliable. If you have HSBC Premier account in both country, it's free to transfer a small amount of money each time.
In many occsions, HSBC act not so greedy as other banks in terms of bankng service charges. I paid Halifax £5 for printing a statement, but the lady in HSBC printed out my statement and folded up nicely and put into an envelope neatly for me and wish me good day, for free. The best thing is when something goes wrong which is not the banker's fault, you can still get your money refunded from the bank. HSBC charges a fee for using its business credit card, since I didn't bother reading its terms and conditions, I didn't know it until the direct debit payment appeared into my current account, besides that there is a current account overdraft fee which will be added up daily! The worst thing happened that its Indian call center lady called me every day to remind me the fee will be added up daily until I make the payment. So I have to go to the bank and talked to them, since I "never" used the credit card, well several times, the bank refunded the credit card charges and overdraft fees.
My friend opens many current accounts and saving accounts with many banks, and claims that he doesn't put all his eggs in one basket. But I said to him, If our good old Prime Minister Gorden Brown didn't bail out Northern Rock, he might have had to go 'Rock n Roll' in a street corner. And If HSBC goes bust, then there is no remedy for the world economy, this means the end of the world, or precisely speaking, the start of another era, who can avoid this kind of destiny?
