HSBC
HSBC’s global network and expertise around BRI makes the bank this year’s winner for the best international bank in the Middle East and Africa for BRI.
Through its universal banking platform, clients can access tailor-made liquidity and cash-management solutions, trade finance and supply-chain support, and a whole host of foreign exchange solutions to support business development between the Middle East and Africa and China. The bank has also established renminbi trade settlement capabilities in the region, streamlining business and trade between the regions.
“BRI in the Middle East and Africa is taking off, and we see this in the variety of projects that are coming online, Chinese interest in doing business here and even the number of Chinese people living in the region,” says Amr Tharwat, deputy head of global banking in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.
This has been evident in Saudi Arabia, where the bank – through its affiliate, Saudi British Bank – has opened 20,000 retail banking accounts for Chinese expatriates working in the country and has provided an accumulated credit facility of more than SR24 billion ($6.4 billion) to more than 220 projects for Chinese enterprises.
“HSBC is the one global bank that can help Chinese clients with their end-to-end business ambitions in the region,” says Tharwat. HSBC banks more than 100 Chinese entities across the infrastructure and utilities, oil and gas, and consumer sectors in the Middle East and Africa.
HSBC has started to introduce new products and offerings in line with their clients’ needs, among them a specialist infrastructure and real estate team in the region with deep knowledge across all key global banking products. In 2017, HSBC held its seventh annual Middle East and North Africa roadshow to China, with a particular focus on the BRI opportunities that exist in the region.
“As a bank, we were able to bring together a number of our clients across both regions, and they have been able to develop business partnerships as a result,” says Helmy Ghazi, head of global banking, HSBC Egypt.