HSBC bags two trophies at the HKB Greater Bay Area Enterprise Awards

The bank leverages its cross-border capabilities to better serve customers and SMEs in the Greater Bay Area

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) has been recognised at the HKB Greater Bay Area Enterprise Awards in the Business Banking and SME Banking category. This award, presented by the Hong Kong Business, aims to honour companies’ initiatives that foster mutual cooperation, investment, and development in the Greater Bay Area.

Serving millions of customers across the globe, HSBC has set forth to expand its SME customer base with services that promote economic development and connect businesses to opportunities in the Greater Bay Area (GBA). Leveraging its cross-border services and capabilities in the GBA, HSBC launched GBA Business 4 Connect, a unified proposition across HSBC Hong Kong and HSBC China to provide customers with a seamless banking experience in the GBA and answer the evolving needs of their customers. To support high-growth sectors and early-stage companies in the GBA, HSBC has earmarked over US$1.8b in facilities through the debt financing schemes, namely GBA+ Technology and GBA+ Healthcare Fund, to help entrepreneurs in the technology and healthcare sectors to capture new opportunities in the region. The bank also offered beyond banking support to customers by providing value-added services through its extensive network and business matching opportunities to clients. 

HSBC GBA Business 4 Connect aims at providing a unified banking experience to their customers. Through Account Connect, customers could open accounts with HSBC Hong Kong in mainland China through a single branch visit with video conferencing capabilities and also enjoy account opening offers. HSBC has enhanced its payment process with speed, convenience, pricing transparency and payment visibility with Payment Connect which enables payment instructions from HSBC PRD branches to reach HSBC Hong Kong in as fast as two minutes. Seeing that businesses in the GBA require seamless cross-border banking solutions to support their development and growth, HSBC has set up a dedicated GBA servicing team to help customers with their GBA enquiries about HSBC products and services through Service Connect in one go. Earlier, HSBC also launched the GBA WeChat Mini Programme, a first-of-its-kind mobile platform for SMEs with cross-border business needs in GBA. The platform is linked to HSBC’s AI-enabled, B2B digital platform – HSBC VisionGo, which feeds the platform with a growing library of insightful articles related to doing business in the GBA. 

Lastly, HSBC Credit Connect allows GBA businesses to reallocate HSBC pre-approved credit limits flexibly among such entities in as fast as one business day, without requiring applications for additional credit limit adjustment. HSBC is the first bank to provide such flexibility in limit sharing between mainland China and Hong Kong. 

As one of the leading international banks in the GBA, HSBC is committed to deepening financial integration and delivering services that bolster economic growth in the region. To respond to the growing demand from e-commerce, logistics and fintech sectors, HSBC introduced the GBA+ Technology Fund in 2019 as a dedicated debt financing fund to support high-growth, early-stage technology companies. The Fund was recently upsized from US$800m to US$1.13b, and extended its scope to support their event transactions due to the complexity of the corporate development stages. 

The US$700m GBA+ Healthcare Fund was added in 2021 that specifically catered to healthcare industry clients to support them in scaling up with viable business models, primarily at the pre-profit stage.

HSBC continues to support GBA entrepreneurs through ecosystem partnership by connecting them with GBA ecosystem partners (e.g. business chambers, professional firms, incubators, investors and government agencies) to support the business needs of the SMEs in the region. 

HSBC has also engaged in a strategic partnership with the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in 2021 to drive the growth of SMEs in the GBA through sharing knowledge on respective digital platforms, seminars and networking events in GBA cities, as well as proprietary research with insights to help businesses expand and grow.

Watch the interview below to know more about their winning project: