Example roles
World class assignments.
From Personal Financial Services to Corporate Banking, an International Manager's assignments can be in any part of our business, anywhere in the world. The range of opportunities and their geographical scope is second to none. To illustrate the kinds of assignments that International Management might expose you to, here are some roles currently being performed by IMs...
| Building business in Argentina | A Premier role in Brunei |
| My role in Premier, Argentina means being involved in every aspect of the business - from developing training modules to participating in conference calls with Premier in London and running financial projections for up to three years in the future. It's hard to describe a typical day in the office. My boss gives me a lot of responsibilities, so the day could start with my filling in for him at a meeting to discuss the launch of a new product, followed by sending mystery shopping results to the branches, and the afternoon spent formulating hiring plans that will minimise cost for the company while maintaining quality services for our customers. The combination of the job itself and being in Latin America has meant learning to juggle multiple projects at once and to have the flexibility to deal with constantly changing schedules. | Being the Head of Premier and Wealth Management for Brunei involves running the Premier team as an efficient and professional sales and service team. I have responsibility for investment and insurance products in Brunei - getting the right products on the shelf, delivering them via appropriate channels and ensuring that the team is equipped with the knowledge and confidence to be able to address customers' needs. It also involves a lot of people and stakeholder management because this job interacts with almost every other department in HSBC, from marketing to operations |
| Reducing risk in Riyadh | Improving management information in Manila |
| The Assistant Risk Manager is responsible for building shareholder value through improved risk return performance leading to higher return on equity. This is achieved via measures such as ongoing prioritisation of asset allocations, introduction and adoption of advanced risk methodologies and the use of stress testing to better understand and minimise the effects of plausible adverse scenarios. A typical day could involve presenting risk issues and subsequent discussion of mitigation methods with top management at the monthly Risk Management meeting. Alternatively, a day could be spent developing a model to measure the impact of changes in regulatory standards on the bank's risk portfolio. | The main responsibility of the role is to develop, design and enhance analytics, manage data quality improvement programmes and provide management information for the Corporate Banking asset portfolio. It includes handling the management information requirements of the division and providing reports to the Central Bank, Group Management Office and the Chief Risk Officer. Any given day would include working with the regional Risk office to improve reporting processes and accuracy, providing guidance to business lines and discussing with the Chief Risk Officer on how to better monitor our corporate portfolio. |
| Auditing Asia-Pacific | Refining corporate governance in Brazil |
| My role involves reviewing the risks and controls within all our entities across Asia-Pacific, focusing on Commercial Banking, Global Banking, Credit Risk Management and Credit Operations. It is a wide remit so it offers a great insight into HSBC's businesses in Asia. It is difficult to describe a typical day because I could be waking up in Bangladesh, Seoul, Jakarta or Hong Kong, depending on the project we are working on - we can sometimes be travelling two weeks in every month. Work tends to be very hectic and interactive while we are overseas, but much less so when we are in Hong Kong in between projects. |
I am responsible for Corporate Governance in HSBC Brasil and I primarily look after Committees Governance and Cost Governance. Committees Governance focuses on making sure the Bank's committees are meeting our governance needs, that cross-over and replication are minimised and that effective governance is in place to ensure accountability and aligned decision-making. Cost governance means that I, with a team, manage the USD3 billion cost base of HSBC Brasil to ensure adequate controls and efficiencies are in place and, using best practices, to develop sustainable cost savings. A typical day involves a lot of data analysis, investigations of results, negotiations with colleagues and managing my team. |
| Credit reviews in the USA | Executive responsibilities in Kuwait |
| A Commercial Credit Analyst helps our Relationship Managers and Commercial Executives in the Commercial Banking Department with the preparation of credit reviews for all monetary facilities in which HSBC has a lending exposure. We also prepare background proposals for new-to-bank deals which we are interested in providing financing solutions for. This role develops a sound knowledge of an extensive commercial banking portfolio covering both private and publicly traded clients. In my portfolio, our Middle-Market customers sit between Small Business and large Corporate customers, and typically operate in a variety of manufacturing and service industries across western New York and Canada, with turnovers of between USD20 million-USD4 billion per annum. You develop strong numerical and analytical skills becin a typical week, you can expect to conduct in-depth reviews of financial statements, industry assessments, collateral evaluations, cash flow analyses and stress tests for 3-5 customers - and more during busy periods when financial results are published. We also perform site visits to examine our clients' facilities, and are expected to assist with marketing events, client meetings and other external networking opportunities. |
The role is to deputise for the country CEO, with functional responsibility for the Commercial Banking and Global Banking businesses in Kuwait. One of its most exciting aspects is that there is no such thing as a typical day. I would, however, usually visit at least one client per day, and quite often more. These client visits are a mix between visiting/servicing existing clients to deepen relationships, and meeting with new prospective clients. There is also a significant amount of interaction with the Central Bank, Regulators, External and Internal Auditors, and supporting regular CSR events and activities. As Kuwait remains a key high growth market and has been relatively less impacted by global economic events, it has received an increased level of attention from many of the global product teams. The local corporate team actively leverage key client relationships to identify and develop ancillary business opportunities, and to facilitate introductions to specialist product providers from across the Group. |
| Building corporate relationships in Bahrain | |
| I head the mid-market and large corporate banking business in Bahrain, which contributes almost 75% of total profits for HSBC in Bahrain (May 2009). My team of relationship managers is responsible for managing a portfolio of 250 clients and my role involves extensive client interaction which I enjoy tremendously, plus the inevitable social and business networking that is essential when working in the Middle East. In running the business, I am also responsible for strategy, balance sheet allocation and risk management. My biggest challenge and biggest opportunity is leading and motivating my team to deliver growth in the current environment. |
