In this BPO Corner:
HSBC Plans Second Call Center Here

The Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) Group is set to establish a second call center site in the country, following the successful operations of its site in Filinvest, Alabang, Trade and Industry Secretary Peter B. Favila said.

“HSBC was very much encouraged by the operations of is call center in Northgate Cyberzone, which presently has about 2,000 seats,” Favila said.

During the visit of HSBC Electronic Data Processing (Philippines) Inc. officials, led by its president David Sutton, Favila emphasized the country’s strengths in business process outsourcing, making the Philippines a premier location for IT-enabled services in the international market.

“The country offers a combination of ‘best-in-class’ service and operation costs significantly reduced compared with many other locations around the world,” Favila said.

Inaugurated in July 1, 2005, the Php1.5-billion call center in the Philippines is HSBC’s eighth Service Center in Asia. Other locations include India, Mainland China and Malaysia.

Favila said that this year, more outbound investment missions are being organized by various government investment promotion agencies to lure in critical investments for the country.

“These missions are not only sent to heighten investors’ interest but to get firm commitments from companies, thus our investment drive will be more focused on identifying and targeting firms,” Favila said.

Started in 1875 in the Philippines, the HSBC group is represented in the Philippines through the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited and its subsidiary, the locally-incorporated HSBC Savings Bank (Philippines) Inc.

HSBC Holdings PLC is headquartered in London. It claims to be the second largest bank by market capitalization and the seventh largest in terms of asset size. HSBC has 9.500 offices in 80 countries around the world.

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This article was originally published in the Manila Bulletin on January 13, 2006. Reprintesd with permission.