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Description

Wholesale Banking provides a wide range of solutions to help corporate and institutional clients facilitate trade and finance across some of the fastest growing markets and trade corridors in today’s global economy. Our focus is on building a client-driven business, being the leading international bank of choice in Asia, Africa and the Middle East and leveraging our in-depth local knowledge and extensive cross-border network.

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2007 highlights and achievements

• Exceptional year with very strong financial performance across the board, reflecting continued success of our client-led income growth strategy
• Our core markets showed resilience amidst the market turmoil
• Investments were focused on our big engines of growth such as Hong Kong, India and Singapore, among other markets
• Continued to deliver on our acquisitions in Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and Pakistan
• Significantly strengthened our presence in the UAE to further support growing client demand in the region

• Invested in building our Equity Derivatives, Commodity Derivatives and Convertibles businesses and accelerated Principal Finance
• The acquisition of Pembroke, Harrison Lovegrove and A Brain added strategic capabilities to our business. American Express Bank and UTI Securities acquisitions will further expand our strategic capabilities
• Launched Straight2Bank – our e-banking platform
• Established Wholesale Banking Sustainable Business Council to commercialise environmental opportunities

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Priorities

• Continue to build scale in our core businesses
• Continue to strengthen and deepen our client relationships
• Increase focus on our Local Corporates and Financial Institutions businesses

• Expand our product sophistication and provide increasingly strategic and value-added capabilities to clients
• Increase geographical coverage – particularly focusing on our eight key markets