HSBC launches private bank in Russia
British bank HSBC is defying the economic gloom by ploughing ahead with plans to launch private banking and retail banking in Russia.
John Nicholls, deputy chief executive of HSBC Russia, said the bank had approved a $200 million increase in the charter capital of its Moscow-based subsidiary two weeks ago and was planning to launch its private banking and retail operations in the coming months.
Speaking at the annual Russo-British Chamber of Commerce forum in Moscow, Nicholls said the bank had quadrupled its Russian team from 90 to 360 people in the last 18 months and did not plan to cut staff.
"We will be opening retail branches in Moscow and St. Petersburg in 2009 and plan to focus on quality of service," he told chamber members and forum delegates.
The launch of HSBC's private baking in operation is slated for the third quarter of this year and its chief is Natalia Solodovnikova, who has headed the private banking department at Deutsche Bank in Zurich. Until recently, Moscow HSBC has been represented on the Russian private banking market by the division of Swiss office of HSBC, where Russian client accounts were opened.
Elsewhere in Moscow, Russian bank Renaisance Capital has announced 100 job losses while headhunters are expecting cuts of 10-20% across the board in financial services.
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