HSBC set to acquire Lloyds’ UAE assets

HSBC Bank Middle East Limited said that it has received the UAE Central Bank’s approval for its acquisition of Lloyds Banking Group’s onshore assets and liabilities in the UAE. The announcement came as HSBC opened the doors of its new Jumeirah branch on Al Wasl Road to both Lloyds and HSBC customers this week. Abdulfattah Sharaf, Chief Executive Officer of HSBC UAE, said: “This announcement marks an important milestone in HSBC’s history in the UAE. HSBC first opened for business here in 1946 and has a record of long-term commitment and investment in the UAE. “I thank the Central Bank for its support and encouragement of HSBC’s continuous growth in the UAE,” Abdulfattah Sharaf added. The business acquired from Lloyds Banking Group has about 8,800 personal and commercial customers and a loan book of approximately $573m (as at the end of 2011). In March, UK-based lender Lloyds Banking Group said it would sell its onshore presence in the UAE to HSBC. The sale, for an undisclosed sum, includes Lloyds’ retail, commercial and corporate banking businesses, which operate out of a single location in Dubai. Lloyds’ onshore operation currently employs 223 people in the country and the lender said it was not sure how many would be offered roles at HSBC. The deal does not include Lloyds’ International Wealth Business in the UAE, which encompasses the lender’s private banking branch in Dubai International Finance Centre and its offshore international personal banking service. Meanwhile Centrify Corporation, the leading provider of security and compliance solutions that centrally control, secure and audit access to on-premise and cloud-based  systems, mobile devices and applications, today announced that HSBC Bank UK is deploying the Centrify Suite to centrally secure system access to HSBC’s distributed IT infrastructure. HSBC’s international network comprises more than 7,200 offices in more than 80 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, theAmericas, the Middle East andAfrica. HSBC central IT staff manages thousands of user accounts across its UNIX and LINUX estate; making access control, privilege management and reporting on user access a critical concern for IT Operations and Audit teams. “Centrify’s product functionality sets it apart from anything else on the market by consolidating complex user and computer access into a streamlined and easy-to-manage arrangement within Active Directory; it’s a massive plus for us,” said Paul Sharpe Enterprise Technical Specialist, Global IT Operations with HSBC.  “We looked at several vendors, but Centrify Suite’s underlying Zones technology was by far the best approach for us to maintain compliance and simplify our processes.” “HSBC is a global financial giant in the industry, with a dynamic IT organisation that demands the highest level of performance and ROI,” said Darren Gross, Centrify Regional Director for EMEA. We are extremely proud that they have selected Centrify to help manage their security needs for centralised user management and auditing, and we look forward to a long-standing, mutually successful relationship,” Sharpe added. From Gulf Today