HSBC Creates $5 Billion Fund to Boost Credit Access
(Update1)
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s largest bank, created a
$5 billion fund to increase access to credit for small and
medium-sized businesses.
One billion pounds ($1.5 billion) from the new fund has been
allocated to U.K. customers, London-based HSBC said in an e-mailed
statement. HSBC will provide the capital from its own resources, it
said.
The seizure in credit markets has pushed Britain into its first
recession since 1991, prompting a 50 billion-pound bank rescue
package from the government. Creating the new fund will help
businesses weather the short-term shocks caused by the downturn,
HSBC said today.
Small and medium-sized businesses “are the lifeblood of most
economies and it is their success that will create growth,” HSBC
Chief Executive Officer Michael Geoghegan said in the
statement.
The bank is allocating about HK$4 billion ($520 million) to Hong
Kong businesses. HSBC’s loans to small and medium-sized companies
in Hong Kong have grown over the past two months as rival banks
curb lending, Global Co-Head of Commercial Banking Margaret Leungtold reporters in Hong Kong
today.
The key rate in the U.K. at 2 percent is now at its lowest
since Winston Churchill was prime minister in
1951. Next year, Britain’s economy may shrink 1.3 percent, the most
in the Group of Seven nations, according to the International
Monetary Fund.
HSBC had assets of $2.6 trillion at June 30 this year.
To
contact the reporter on this story: Rebecca Keenan in Melbourne at[email protected]
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The world's local bank is trying to prove to the global communities
that they care and support local businesses. What impact will $5b
make when they allocate the fund across the global communities? It
is a good publicity move.