Analysis of the bank industry that HSBC in Australia competes in

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Please find the The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation file below.

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Reena

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Running Head: THE HONG KONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION

The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation
 
Introduction
Traditionally, the environment of banking industry in Australia was strongly regulated and synchronized. Before 1980's it was very difficult for the foreign banks to enter in the banking industry of Australia and launch their operations. As a result, in comparison to United States of America, Hong Kong, etc. there were very few multinational banks in Australia (Sykes, 1998). These banks had two categories trading banks and saving banks. The saving bank of Australia was not offering any kinds of interest to their client on the deposits of their money and they were highly restricted to provide any kind of mortgages to the consumers (Myers, 1961). Trading banks come under the category of merchant banks and these banks did not provide any kind of services and facilities to the general consumers.

Due to these kinds of restrictions and regulations, there was an increased in the non-banking financial institutions and other non-profit organizations that serves the consumers various financial services (Australian Banking Industry, 2004). These kinds of institutions give good interest rate to the public and provide some other facilities such as mortgage, personal loan, business loan etc. But these institutions were restricted regarding the service provision and could not offer a wide range of banking services (Myers, 1961).

After the period of 1980, the government had made some regulations for the entry of other foreign banks in the Australian market and improvement of banking industry of Australia (Sykes, 1998). HSBC is also one of the important foreign subsidiaries in the Australian banking industry, which had a great impact in the growth of banking industry of Australia. HSBC is officially known as Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. HSBC was granted to open its subsidiary in Australia in 1965 as HSBC finance company limited and in 1986 HSBC was established itself as, HSBC Bank Australia Limited (HSBC in Australia, 2009).

History of Australian Banking Industry
Before 1983 there were mainly four eras of banking in Australia private banking from 1817 to 1911, central banking from 1880 to 1901, Commonwealth Bank from 1911 to 1957 and Reserve Bank Era from 1957 to 1983 (Sykes, 1998). In the period of 1983, the banking industry of Australia had begun to deregulate. In addition, the general differences between the saving and trading bank were eliminated and the banking regulations had become more easy and flexible. As a result, the foreign banks could easily open their branches in the Australian banking industry (HSBC: The World's Local Bank, 2009).
These national and foreign banks could serve a broad range of banking services on high interest rate to the consumers, such as saving accounts, current account, mortgage, personal and other loans, insurance services, etc. (Australian Banking Industry, 2004). Ending of the various restrictions and limitation to enter in the banking sectors had opened the door of wide credit availability for the consumers. In order to cope up with the competitive environment, the banking industry had abolished all the uncontrolled and poor banking practices. Implementation of new and flexible practices, which had geared up the standard and competition in the banking industry, had been increased (Sykes, 1998).
Due to these regulations and practices, most of the small non banking financial institute had been shut down, while the large non-banking institutions had ...