Awards for Excellence 2020
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HSBC has been central to maintaining imports of vital goods into the region, even while national borders slammed shut.
In the first quarter of 2020, HSBC processed $15.8 billion of trade in the region, with notable surges in the food and healthcare sectors. The bank’s work to maintain and improve its supply chains through remote working has meant that medicine, food and protective equipment has continued to reach those in need.
HSBC responded to the crisis by reducing transaction times: 75% of health care transactions and 83% of food sector transactions are processed in 24 hours. And it did so while ensuring service standards exceeded stipulated customer agreements. The regional head of global liquidity and cash management is Noor Adhami.
Key transactions included providing procurement support for ventilator and medical gas supplies for a temporary treatment centre with 3,000 beds; enabling food distributors to transact digitally to ensure supplies could reach locked-down locations; fast tracking a pharmaceutical company’s supply-chain transactions to ensure production for the next six months; and onboarding a firm to enable it to rapidly start production of N95 masks.
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Noor Adhami |
In the space of a few weeks, it helped hundreds of business customers join its online corporate banking platform, HSBCnet, and in April 2020 saw a 275% increase in customer engagement with HSBCnet compared with a year earlier.
Many customers rerouted their business to HSBC, using the bank’s global reach to manage the risk of disruption to payments.
In terms of employee protection, HSBC extended its onsite medical services at its UAE headquarters in Dubai to provide free virtual and telephone consultations for staff, and repeat medication prescriptions for chronic conditions.
It also provided a free, confidential and professional counselling service for staff and their families on topics including the psychological impact of Covid-19.
The bank has also provided key support to its investment banking clients, helping to raise financing in turbulent markets as well as numerous Covid-19 response bonds globally.
It acted as a joint bookrunner on the first Covid-19 response bond from the Middle East, a $1.5 billion five-year sukuk issued by the Islamic Development Bank. HSBC was the sole structuring adviser for IDB.
