For HSBC, Bonifacio Global City is the place to be in

In many Asian cultures, the sign of a wealthy family depends on its size: The bigger the clan, the more prosperous the family is. Many consider a big family to be a blessing. With numerous children to rely on, the patriarch and matriarch are assured of comfortable lives in old age.

Companies and institutions are no different. A firm that grows in size and number shows that it is prosperous, too. An establishment that starts with just a handful of employees, when successful, may grow by leaps and bounds, a sure sign of success.

HSBC is one such successful company. Since it changed gears in 1994, it has gradually grown into one of the more prominent foreign banks in the country.

"The bank is growing by leaps and bounds," says HSBC chief operating officer Elaine Dichupa. "Considering that in 1993 we were only less than 300, we are now over a 1,400. The business has really grown, and so we are looking to put all our operations in one place."

Growth needs space, and that is exactly what HSBC is doing. By next year, it will be relocating its back office – non-customer phasing divisions totaling about 900 employees – to its new digs at Bonifacio Global City.

"Up to 1993, I knew everyone," says Dichupa. "I knew their children, their husbands, their wives. We knew everybody. We were not a very big bank. We had Makati, we had Iloilo – only two branches."

"Before we were really, really close and very small, but that’s the price of success," she adds.

But why move to Bonifacio Global City?

"Isn’t that the place to be in?" the HSBC COO declares. "It is where there is a lot of potential. At the same time, we are partnering with Ayala, and they are building it for us."

She explains, "Bonifacio Global City is a very good place for us. Actually, it’s not very far from our main business corporate headquarters, which will remain here (at the Enterprise Towers). So, that means our CEO will remain here as well as all our customer phasing divisions."

The move will gather together the back offices in Makati and Ortigas in one place.

"We would like to move everything to one place for more synergy, to be more effective and, at the same time, to have our own place where we can have hope for growth," she adds. "If our credit cards and accounts increase, definitely we need more people to do more processing."

The move is just physical. The bank’s different offices are also connected digitally. If travel down Ayala Ave. might be inconvenient for whatever reason, meetings may be done through video-conferencing, a technology the firm has already adopted.

"Although HSBC is a bank, we are also responsible members of the community," Dichupa says. "We have our environmental targets. HSBC looks at how much fuel we use, how much travel we do. Video conferencing will lessen the use of gas because they no longer have to come here."

The firm is retaining its original allocation of four-and-a-half floors for all its customer phasing divisions at the Enterprise Center when it moves.

Plans for the move were already on the drawing board as early as 1995. However, the Asian crisis prompted the firm to reconsider any move. It did open a small branch at The Fort, and it remains one of the few financial institutions present in the area.Ten years later, HSBC is finally making the move. And the transfer couldn’t be more timely.

Moving is not new to HSBC. The bank moved its main office from Binondo to Makati in December 1971. "At that time, HSBC was already a small player. During the martial law years, we were a very wholesale bank, offering trade services dealing with the customers," says the HSBC COO. "But in the early 1990s, we changed our strategy, not only in the Philippines, but also in the region, to go to the consumer’s personal finances. That’s how we have grown also in treasury and the consumer side, but we are still very strong on the corporate side."

HSBC currently occupies almost nine floors at the Enterprise Center. When the bank moved in in 1999, it occupied a total four-and-a-half floors: ground floor; mezzanine, which is technically just half a floor; sixth; seventh; and eighth floors. Through the years, it moved its staff to the 12th, part of the 10th, the 11th, and the 15th floors.

"We’ve really grown since 1999 when we moved here," says Dichupa.

When the back office of HSBC moves to Bonifacio Global City, it will be occupying a total of nine floors.

The move, scheduled around late January or early February 2007, will make the firm’s operations more efficient.