A Prime Growth Area

One lucrative local market targeted by large outside banks is the state’s expanding international business. At a time when many banks are reducing operations to address financial difficulties, HSBC, which is the world’s largest bank in terms of assets and revenues, with operations in 87 countries, has recently opened branches in Redmond, Mercer Island, Seattle and Bellevue.

“We’ve identified Seattle as a strategic area for HSBC. It has a lot of international connectivity,” says Ron Martinez, HSBC’s senior vice president and executive for Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. Martinez points to the large number of foreign-born residents in the region as well as the many companies that already have international operations or plans to establish operations overseas. The bank offers a broad range of services aimed at international customers including one that allows them to move their money easily among accounts in different countries using advantageous currency exchange rates, while having the transferred funds instantly available.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., which acquired the assets of Washington Mutual, is hiring personnel to build up its strength in commercial lending, an area in which WaMu was not a significant player.  “Everybody wants to target the non-real estate sector because you can do a lot of things for those customers,” says Curt Fraser, Chase’s president of middle-market banking. “But some banks aren’t accustomed to it. You have to block and tackle every day.”

Fraser says Chase has an important advantage in targeting midsize companies because so many of them are expanding overseas and Chase has people in its overseas operations who are exclusively assigned to helping midsize companies with the wide range of banking requirements involved in operating internationally. 

Related: Where Credit Is Due: The rise of credit unions.

Back to main story: Under Siege.

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