It seems as though every day brings another doom-laden headline about rising costs affecting businesses and individuals.

We spoke to Adam Belfield and Shibaji Dasgupta at HSBC about how they are looking to support customers through difficult financial times.

Adam is head of wealth and personal banking, leading a team of 50 people, whilst Shibaji, more usually known as ‘Shib’, is head of commercial banking. Adam and Shib, who are both newly appointed to their roles in the island, are also charged with being the ‘faces’ of HSBC in the local community.

When it comes to personal customers dealing with the rising cost of living, Adam says: ‘We are all feeling the impact of price rises, it’s something we’re acutely aware of and monitoring.

‘It’s important we maintain dialogue with our customers, especially during financially challenging times, to ensure we’re offering them the right products and services and also providing them with an opportunity to talk to us about areas and ways that we can help them.

This, he goes on to explain, might be looking at swapping a tracker mortgage for a fixed mortgage to give customers some stability on what is probably their largest outgoing, or looking at possibly consolidating other lending facilities that they have.

Adam goes on: ‘When it comes to the cost of living and how we’re supporting our customers, we’ve got to think around it more broadly because it’s going to be a lot different for someone who’s working, with a mortgage and supporting a family versus someone who’s made their wealth and wants to maintain their wealth and grow it.

‘We’re here to help everyone, in the knowledge that everyone’s financial circumstances are very different.’

Shib, who runs a team of local relationship directors dealing with corporate customers, says: ‘That feeds into businesses as well and we also spend a lot of time talking to our customers, to understand and learn about their business.

‘What impact is inflation having on your business and, in turn, your customers? What is your market position? And what are your supply chain challenges?’

‘Also, as prices go up with inflation, so too do wage demands, and these are constant conversations we’re having with our clients, to ensure we’re providing services that best support their needs.’

‘Adam and I are always talking about what’s happening in the business community, what’s happening in the personal community, to make sure we’ve got a really good handle on challenges the island faces and how we can support our customers, whether they’re locally or internationally based, or both.’

HSBC’s international outlook and global network has always made it attractive for business customers. It can help a business get established in a country where the culture of doing business is completely different to our own.

‘My job is bringing that international network to our customers on the Isle of Man. For a business, your local relationship director is the gateway to the global network of HSBC.

‘We are a truly global internationally connected bank, which understands and values the different cultures and communities of the 64 countries and territories where we’re based. Our local managers around the world support customers in how to approach each market from both a business and cultural point of views.

‘It’s great that we can globally support our customers in this way.’

Another issue which is high on the agenda for HSBC is the environment which will increasingly affect business customers both locally and internationally.

Last year, the Isle of Man Government borrowed £400 million to cover a range of major national projects including ‘clean transportation, energy efficiency, affordable housing, education and healthcare’.

The money was raised as a bond issue, the Isle of Man’s first ‘sustainable’, or ‘green’ bond. HSBC partnered with the Treasury to structure the Sustainable Finance Framework which provides the criteria for the projects for which this bond is intended.

Shib says: ‘The great thing about working with the local community is that you can see the difference it’s going to make.’

And he goes on: ‘HSBC as a bank has committed itself and its suppliers to net zero by 2030. In partnership with our clients, we’re using our expertise, size and global reach to help companies, governments and institutions achieve their net-zero ambitions. Working with the Isle of Man Government is an excellent example of how the financial sector can lead the way in helping to build an inclusive, prosperous society and a more sustainable future for all.’

It’s fair to say that many people still view the whole concept of ‘net carbon’ with a degree of cynicism. For example, if a business with subsidiaries in, say, the UK and the US, claims to have reduced its carbon by 20%, has it done so overall or is the 20% it is quoting in the UK the same 20% it is quoting in the US?

Transparency is key, says Shib: ‘It’s important that each company is fully transparent about how and where they’re supporting the transition to net-zero, so that customers and communities understand what commitment is being made and how that commitment is having a positive impact on the environment.

For the bank’s smaller business customers, green loans are on offer, starting from £30,000 upwards, for projects such as changing to electric vehicles.

HSBC’s green loans for personal customers also launched last year and the bank has partnered with the Manx Wildlife Trust, making a donation to the trust for planting trees and hedges whenever a customer takes out a green loan.

Adam says: ‘The loan could be for insulating their homes, or buying an electric car, and customers can also invest in funds that meet certain Environmental and Social Governance criteria.’

Employee wellbeing is another thing that is very high on the bank’s agenda, whether that be diversity and inclusion or supporting mental wellbeing.

As with many other organisations, many of the bank’s employees are now working from home, or working in a more hybrid, flexible way.

And, for HSBC’s operations in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, this has added another dimension, and opportunity.

Adam says: ‘HSBC has always supported flexible working, even before the pandemic. And where historically some roles might have been Jersey-based, the focus is now on who is the best individual across all our the three islands, wherever they are based.’

And, as Shib points out, many people are happier with a hybrid working model, plus on the days when they are working from home they are also using less petrol which is good for the environment.’

He adds: ‘What the pandemic has forced us to achieve, let’s hold on to the good bits.’