HSBC maintains focus on IT standardisation despite profit slump

HSBC is two years into a five-year IT consolidation

HSBC will continue focusing on IT standardisation to generate savings, after pre-tax profit for 2008 fell by 62 per cent to £6.5bn.

Central to the bank’s strategy to survive during the downturn is the consolidation programme One HSBC, a global initiative to join up technology, products and processes.

The bank is two years into the five-year plan, which involves moving 55 core banking systems, 24 credit card systems and 41 internet banking systems onto a single platform, as well as consolidating 130 datacentres into four pairs around the world.

“This programme is core to joining up the company,” said HSBC chairman Stephen Green.

“It is delivering higher quality IT and operations at lower cost across the group. It allows us to service individual and corporate customer needs seamlessly across borders and means we can deliver a consistently high-quality customer experience,” he said.

Last year, HSBC chief technology and services officer Ken Harvey said the platform will allow the bank to “go into new markets for tens of millions of dollars rather than hundreds of millions of dollars".

Cutting back on cost is more important than ever to HSBC, as the bank has turned to shareholders to raise £12.5bn in its largest rights issue to date, aimed at shoring up its finances.