Profits and service

HSBC recently announced record-breaking profits and their chairman, Sir John Bond, said 2004 was "another good year for HSBC". More specifically of local interest, for the year ended December 31, 2004, HSBC Malta generated a 26.3 per cent increase in profits before tax. Can we ask whether it was another good year for its customers?

A recent visit to HSBC Fgura highlighted only too well the current problems.

I arrived at 12.15 p.m. to find that I was sixth in the queue. One gentleman was obviously cashing his year's takings and occupied the service of one teller for the next 25 minutes. There was another teller available but unfortunately her client also had some lengthy business.

At 12.30 p.m., having not made any ground towards the front of the queue I politely asked whether we could have another teller. After all Fgura branch has three teller positions so it seemed a logical answer to the problem. I was politely told it was "against procedures" as two was the maximum number of tellers allowed at any one time.

This frustrating situation was exacerbated by the fact that there were several HSBC employees milling around the bank floor, so staff were actually available if "procedures" had allowed them to serve the customers.

By 12.45 p.m. I had moved up dramatically to fifth in the queue but my wait had not been in vain - I had managed to watch an HSBC golfing video advertisement at least seven times. It's the one where the golfer gets a "hole-in-one" to the delight of his playing partners. I am afraid that HSBC's playing partners, we the public, are not highly delighted. I left the bank a few minutes later without having been served.

Are there any foreign banks which want to come in and offer real service to Maltese clientele?