Imagine a situation where you are stranded in a city abroad and you lost all your proper documents and belongings. You have no families or relatives nearby and it leaves you no choice but going to a bank. Without a proper document, such situation will knock you even downer since the bank will treat you as a stranger.
With HSBC Premier, you will never be a stranger wherever you go in the world. What you need to do is just walking into any of HSBC’s seven thousand or so branches anywhere in the world, and your problem will be solved, Ravi Sreedharan, HSBC’s head of personal financial services explained to The Jakarta Post. “There is no bank in the world that can assist you without having to show proper documents like ID or Passport.”
Whether it is a short visit or a permanent move from one country to another or a temporary stay for studying abroad, an HSBC Premier customer can enjoy the bank’s excellent global connection.
With HSBC Premier, everything can be transferred as the bank passes the Premier holders’ credit history to a new country.
“The day you land up in a new place, if you are an HSBC Premier customer, your credit history is transferred, you can open a new account, you can be issued a new card or even you can ask for a mortgage and/or other banking facilities. You can just do it all there in a new place,” Sreedharan explained.
For Indonesian customers who travel a lot, joining HSBC Premier means having the extra privileges. The HSBC’s Premier MasterCard offers the best mileage points. And the card’s Premier’s Home and Away Privilege Program lets cardholders enjoy privileges and all the opportunities the world has to offer. The good thing is that every Premier customer entitles for Premier MasterCard. The credit card is unsecured so it’s not related to the amount deposited into the Premier account. Likewise, the credit card is automatically closed should a customer closes his or her Premier account.
“No credit card offers better mileage point than Premier card. And if your card is lost or stolen, we can replace it in 24 hours anywhere in the world,” the HSBC’s head of personal financial services furthered.
Furthermore, more privilege services have been delivered to current cardholders. Open since last December, HSBC Premier Lounge at the Soekarno-Hatta airport gives room for its customers to relax, gets a fresh air or enjoys full business facilities such as Internet and conference rooms.
While they are in Singapore, the Premier customers can kick back in very exclusive lounge, CIP (Commercially Important Person) Lounge at Changi airport. The lounge operates 24 hours a day with such facilities as Transit Meeting Room, Spa, Massage Chairs, Food & Beverages, Nap Rooms and Mini Gym, Shopping Services, Limousine transfer to or from town, Business Center, etc.
Also, the Premier service offers an innovative state-of-the-art technology called ‘sapphire.’ It is retina recognition where the Premier customer can have access to the Automatic Border Passage machine enabling to fast track through immigration counter without having to stamp your passport.
However, this hassle free immigration service is not for all HSBC Premier, Sreedharan added. “It’s only for VIP Premier customers. Those who have higher balance Premier account.”
Notwithstanding all the benefits HSBC Premier has to offer, HSBC Premier is targeted at very specific segment. Obviously it is designed for those who need a distinctively excellent financial service.
Sreedharan estimated that there are 2 million Premier customers worldwide and he said the bank is looking forward to reaching the number to six million by 2010. Looking at the number, it is obviously a very segmented banking program even though there is no limitation of who can open the account.
Anyone, including expatriates, can open the account as long as they have at least an investable asset of US$50 thousand or 500 million rupiah for an initial deposit, he said.
High-end people will undoubtedly enjoy benefits for joining the Premier account. “We would like to make your money works hard for you. Here, we are to offer one of the best investment and wealth management services in the world. And the way we do it is very interesting one. We would like to be a navigator while the customer is the pilot. So customers can take their money to wherever they want to take it. As a navigator, we will keep updating information they need at the right time like that of interest rate and currency rate, etc.,” Sreedharan explained.
With the bank’s healthy current growth rate, he is very optimistic with the potential growth in the long-term, world wide and particularly in Indonesia. “I’ll tell you, though it’s not officially confirmed, we are on the top three in terms of number of customers we have from such limited segment market. And HSBC Premier has the highest incremental number of new customers in the archipelago,” he expressed his gesture excitedly.
This advertorial was published in The Jakarta Post, February 9, 2008.
