2012, the year HSBC superseded HDFC

Building a brand is not easy, particularly in countries like India where mango people like me form a majority. Irrespective of how big a brand globally is, it’s not necessary that people in india would have even heard of it unless you would have touched people’s lives or connected with them in some way or other. There can be multiple examples but I would like to highlight the case with which I have my personal experience. HSBC (name changed) as a bank is amongst world’s largest financial institutions, in fact within top 5 globally, but majority of people didn’t even recollect its existence prior to 2012. Infact I myself had hardly known its scale till I started working for it. Things became trickier once I was part of a “brand” which somehow no one recognised and was easily confused with HDFC, a bank which has less than 1/10^th the size of HSBC. I was often frustrated when friends called me thinking I work for HDFC, in spite of having clarified the difference in scale of two banks multiple times. Things become even more frustrating when few friends showed their disgust when I mention the name of my employer, saying that I am of no use and could have been of some use had I worked for HDFC. Explaining that HSBC is indeed a big bank was even more difficult to people who would take pot-shot at banks tagline – “world’s LOCAL bank”. So after multiple failed attempts I gave up, realizing that a single person can’t create a no-brand (HSBC) particularly when the identity needs to be established in front of a BRANDED ITEM (HDFC).

Then came the year  2012, the year of activism and the year in which US Feds started nailing Banks. HSBC was booked for Money laundering and hence begun the publicity. With each hearing and conviction, Indian newspapers published name “HSBC” for free. Offcourse Times of India could not give HSBC priority over Poonam Pandey or Sunny Leone, but it did whatever it could within its constraints of serious journalism. In present age when bankers are considered only next to politicians and lawyers in terms of sharp scoundrel’s refuge, the stories of financial crimes quickly etched in public memory. So the brand was build, only the scale needed to be conveyed which was again facilitated by US Feds who fined HSBC for 1.9 Bn USD, again a news widely captured by all newspapers. Suddenly HSBC got its due and was remembered as bank which was diverse enough to launder money of Mexican mafia as well as Arabic terror groups, has headquarters in London, UK while its name is an acronym for “Hong kong and Shanghai banking corp.”, impressive indeed! Indian connection was still missing, then came our beloved Mr. Kejriwal, who made a revelation that Ambanis have their accounts in HSBC Geneva branch. So finally HSBC also got a reputation of bank which is trusted by India’s wealthiest class for keeping their black money. Thanks to this chain of events which unfolded in 2012, the people around me now know the brand HSBC and they also know that someday if they do great in their careers and have potential of evading taxation on huge sums, they know which is the “best place to bank”.  Numerous terror groups within our country also now know another bank which has the expertise of facilitating their requirements.  

Thanks Mr. Kejriwal, US Feds and above all various employees and designers of operational risk systems of HSBC whose collective effort had made me to see this day when my employer is being finally recognised my everyone.

P.S - Having worked for HSBC bank for a significant period of time, I can say that it is surely best international bank with best of the ethical practices. This is written in humorous spirit with