The bank aims to provide strong support for businesses which trade or aspire to trade internationally and has committed to providing lending facilities to support business growth and job creation.
The bank has confirmed that it met its Merlin lending intentions in 2011, which were agreed with the UK Government, exceeding the full year target to provide £38.8bn of lending facilities to UK business customers and supplying gross new lending facilities of more than £11.7bn to small and medium-sized enterprises.
Having met its Merlin intentions in 2011, HSBC plans to lend even more to SMEs in 2012, provided there is suitable demand.
In addition, to reinforce the bank's strategy to be the leading international trade and business bank, HSBC will further support UK businesses by committing to:
- Recruit around 50 additional international commercial managers, ensuring customers involved in overseas trade are fully supported. This will bring the total number of international commercial managers to 180;
- Support export trade to the tune of £7bn through its trade finance capabilities;
- Look to manage £30bn of invoices for customers trading within the UK or internationally, providing critical working capital for these customers;
- Look to approve at least 80% of applications for finance from SMEs; and
- Extend the availability of HSBC's international business overdraft, which offers reduced interest rate for each overseas country a small business is trading with, up to a maximum discount of 3% for the first 12 months.
"In 2012 we will further increase our support for SMEs looking to grow and internationalise, across all sectors and all regions. Many of our customers are experiencing growth by trading in new markets and we are very well placed to support this, through our growing team of specialist international commercial managers and HSBC's enviable global network, to give UK businesses the best chance of success."
