New processing centre continues HSBC migration plan

HSBC opened a data-processing centre in Shanghai yesterday as part of a plan to shift more of its processing operations to the mainland.

The centre, the group's second on the mainland, has about 30 on its staff which will be expanded to about 550 by the end of the year, according to HSBC officials.

Andrew Long, head of operations and processing for the Asia-Pacific at HSBC, said: 'We will migrate more of the processing operations across the whole HSBC group [to China].'

Mr Long did not say how much HSBC had invested in the Shanghai operation and did not rule out job losses in Hong Kong or elsewhere as a result of the shift.

But he said bank policy was to try to find work for employees in other departments within the group where possible.

HSBC, has been moving labour-intensive work to lower cost areas, particularly those with a relatively well-educated workforce. China and India have been seen as the top candidates.

Shanghai will handle account maintenance operations, such as keeping track of addresses, names and beneficiaries as well as transaction information.

HSBC has a data-processing centre in Guangzhou, which mainly handles processing for Hong Kong. It also has a centre in Hyderabad, India, to handle data from Britain and another will soon be opened in Bangalore.