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Michael Schrum, Chief Financial Officer, HSBC Bermuda, said: “The main impact on 2012 performance was higher loan impairment charges – principally the rapid deterioration of certain material and connected commercial real estate related loans in North America.
Additional impairment charges were required as a prudent response to continuing stress in the Bermudian market, reflecting lower values for both commercial and residential property.
“Revenues were resilient, despite the continued strains in the local economy and lower yields on our high-quality liquidity portfolio as we reduced our exposure to the inter-bank market.
“The resilience and mix of our underlying businesses, our strong franchise and our membership of HSBC Group, has enabled the Bank to absorb the increased loan impairment charges. The Bank maintains strong capital and liquidity positions, which significantly exceed
the regulatory requirements.”
Richard Moseley, CEO, HSBC Bermuda, said: “Locally, we have spent much time with many individuals and businesses to discuss their financial situation. As we are keen to help our customers manage through difficult times, we have gone to considerable lengths to assist a large number of them to restructure their financial obligations through traditional means, such as debt consolidation as well as innovative solutions helped by our
ability to leverage the broad skill base of the wider HSBC Group.
“On the corporate front, there have been some notable highlights in 2012 as we have found new ways to work with corporate customers. The Bank was selected in lead management roles for a number of capital markets transactions, and we continue to assist our insurance clients with management of their cash flow and non-US dollar catastrophe claims by providing value added foreign exchange advice and foreign currency accounts.
“We have made good progress on wealth management for our personal customers and have delivered ‘principal protected’ investments and additional insurance products to the market.
“With our in-house specialist relationship managers, we continue to grow our share of international business enabling us to offer local access to the full range of services offered by a leading international bank.
“HSBC Bank Bermuda Limited has been named ‘Best Bank in Bermuda’ by Euromoney for the second year and named ‘Bank of the Year’ in Bermuda for the sixth consecutive year by The Banker magazine.
“I would like to personally thank our customers for their continued support and confidence in the Bank, and our staff for their commitment and support to our customers during this difficult period.”

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