HSBC ends 25-year Christchurch stay
The HSBC bank is quitting Christchurch and will soon vacate its top floor office in Worcester Boulevard in HSBC Tower next to the city council building.
Local branch manager Colin Ross heads a relatively small team and some of them have been offered job relocation in other centres but he said he will be staying in the South Island, his home over the past 30 years.
HSBC spokesman Jonathan Williams said the bank had made a strategic decision to close its Christchurch office by the end of this month.
HSBC would create a larger presence in Wellington to provide a more comprehensive service to its South Island clients, Williams said.
HSBC has a lease running until the end of 2018 and will advertise to sub lease the 376 square metre space.
The owner of the 12-level building, Nick Hunt, said he expected to find another tenant, and the naming rights to the building would also be available.
HSBC has always catered to wealthier clients - customers must either have a $100,000 deposit or a loan of $500,000, which is more common in places like Auckland and Queenstown.
HSBC customers in the South Island will continue to have a personalised service with a dedicated relationship manager, according to Williams.
He said HSBC was ‘‘firmly’’ committed to continuing to grow its business in this country.
HSBC has provides global and local banking services for larger companies and rich individuals with offshore banking requirements, rather than mass retail customers.
HSBC was the first overseas bank to be granted a banking licence in New Zealand in 1987, following deregulation of the country’s financial markets.
HSBC initially opened its head office in New Zealand in Wellington, but moved it to Auckland in 1989 and opened the Christchurch office a year later.
HSBC operates in New Zealand as a branch of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, incorporated in Hong Kong.
It was founded by Scotsman Sir Thomas Sutherland when Hong Kong was a British colony in 1865.
It is the seventh largest bank by total assets, and the largest in Europe.