HSBC Commits USD 525,000 To a 'Spirit Of Mumbai Initiative'

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India , 2006-07-26

HSBC has announced the launch of a 'Spirit of Mumbai initiative' following the bomb blasts in Mumbai on July 11, 2006. USD 525,000 (Rs 2.4 crores) has been set up with the aim of providing support to the city of Mumbai.

Every year HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Private Limited (HSCI) designates one day as Charity Day where all its brokerage commissions accrued on that day are pledged to charity. Over the years, these donations have helped educational institutions in Mumbai, communities affected by the Gujarat earthquake and more recently, the tsunami. This year, HSCI held a fund-raising day, a week after the Mumbai blasts, on 18 July 2006 and received overwhelming support in this effort from their customers, allowing them to raise USD 263,000 (Rs. 1.2 crores) on a single day. This amount has been matched by HSBC Holdings, taking the amount to USD 525,000.

HSBC will identify NGO partners to help administer an initiative that will offer to provide education and livelihood learning to the children of the blast victims, help to improve the city's infrastructure and offer some livelihood training skills to the slum dwellers, who were the first to come to the aid of the victims on the day of the blasts.

Naina Lal Kidwai, CEO, HSBC India said, "We are grateful to our customers and to our Head office, HSBC Holdings plc for helping us raise monies for HSBC's Spirit of Mumbai initiative. We are now in the process of identifying appropriate NGOs who will assist us in this initiative, which will be closely monitored by us and will help in serving the best interests of the people of Mumbai. We are deeply engaged in this city and indeed in all the cities where we operate in India and this initiative will supplement our other education and environment projects across the country"

1. HSBC in the Community

HSBC is involved in the community in each of the countries and territories where we operate through philanthropy and sponsorship. The Group focuses on education and the environment and aims to concentrate the majority of its funding in these two areas. HSBC has adopted two international codes of conduct for multinational companies--the United Nations Global Compact and the Global Sullivan Principles.

It is the world’s largest financial services group to secure a place in the FTSE4Good Index of socially responsible companies and has also been awarded a place in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World) that rates and monitors companies according to their economic, environment and social performance.

2. HSBC in India

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited in India offers a full range of banking and financial services from its 44 branches in the 23 cities of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, New Delhi, Noida, Pune, Trivandrum, Thane, Vadodara, Visakhapatnam and Mysore, and some 150 ATMs across the country. HSBC has a credit card base of over one million customers in India and is one of the leading credit card merchant acquirers in the Indian credit cards industry.

HSBC supports initiatives in each city where it operates in India, concentrating its resources to education – for the underprivileged and handicapped children. The HSBC Scholarships are awarded to two outstanding students for studies in Oxford, Cambridge or London Universities. Environment is the other imperative, with support to projects for wildlife and heritage conservation.

3. The HSBC Group

The HSBC Group is one of the largest banking and financial services organisations in the world. The Group has over 9,500 offices in 76 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa, serves over 125 million customers and has assets of US$1,502 billion at 31 December 2005.


Contact

Malini Thadani, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC), + 91 (022) 2268 1046
[email protected]