Banking giant HSBC says its e-commerce initiatives are continuing to pay off as online foreign-exchange transactions through Hong Kong have swelled to about US$10 billion a week.
Officials said they expected Internet-based revenues to increase following the worldwide launch next week of the markets@hsbc electronic trading platform to the bank's top corporate and institutional clients.
HSBC Asia-Pacific e-commerce head Tony Cripps said the launch of an upgraded online trading platform 'was planned for more than a year to offer features that put the bank ahead of the curve'.
'This platform provides secure online access to all the power of an HSBC dealing room,' Mr Cripps said.
He said the expanded coverage of markets@hsbc on the hsbc.com portal would be driven from the bank's Hong Kong, New York and London operations.
The online trading platform, which is operated by the bank's treasury and capital markets division, has generated in excess of US$240 billion worth of forex transactions from virtually zero through 100,000 trades from August 2000 to October this year, HSBC e-commerce strategic development manager Barry Flower said.