HELEN KIRRANE visits super-secret new HSBC branch in London exclusively for well-heeled customers

Big banks have started a fierce battle for wealthier customers in the past year.

Lloyds Bank has recently launched an account targeting those with salaries beyond £100,000, joining Barclays and HSBC, who are already established players for monied customers.

HSBC is now offering a £500 gift card for those who switch to its Premier account – which offers worldwide travel insurance, health appointments and loyalty rates – as it fights back.

Banks want to entice wealthier customers as they’re more likely to have money to invest, alongside cross-selling other ‘premium’ products.

Now, HSBC has another weapon in its arsenal. The banking giant has splashed out £3.7million on a new super secret branch it dubs a ‘wealth centre’ in London for Premier and Private customers – a contrast to major banks culling regular branches in the past decade at furious speed.

It opened in June and is across the road from fine art galleries Messums and Saatchi Yates in the heart of St James’s.

The banking giant has launched its first wealth hub in Europe at the historic Smithson Tower – The Economist Tower – as it was originally known.

You would be forgiven for not noticing a private club is housed in the fifteen-floor brutalist tower designed by husband and wife architect duo, Alison and Peter Smithson, in 1959.

That’s because not just anyone can saunter in and this, says HSBC’s head of Premier wealth Xian Chan, is exactly the under-the-radar status HSBC is trying to cultivate.

‘We didn’t want to draw any kind of attention to the fact that this is an exclusive HSBC premise,’ says Xian, who joined the team as head of Premier wealth 18 months ago.

HSBC customers will not pass through security gates or swipe a Premier bank card to get in. Like the building itself, accessing the wealth club is a bit more understated than that.

As access is strictly ‘invite only’ or by request, customers will be on a list when they arrive and are shown up to the wealth centre on the eighth floor.

Champagne on arrival and Greyson Perry art 

Stepping out of the lift, I’m greeted by HSBC’s wealth centre receptionist, Carmelita Armstrong, and offered a drink. 

No counter to cash cheques or do day-to-day banking tasks, but instead a countertop bar where customers order refreshments – including champagne if they wish. 

Spread over two floors and 7,000 square feet, the wealth centre boasts impressive views of London’s skyline from Westminster Abbey to the Shard.

On the walls, HSBC’s has curated its own art gallery of sorts, by its in-house art curator, featuring the works of contemporary British artists including Greyson Perry.

The wealth centre is HSBC’s latest tactic in the skirmish for ultra-wealthy customers, an ambition it is not shy about.

It is seeking to double the assets it oversees for well-heeled customers in the UK to £100billion by 2028.

As well as the Selfridges sweetener, it has cut financial advice fees to 1 per cent from 2.75 per cent for Premier customers to tempt them to park their investments with HSBC.

The wealth club in London is building on similar efforts in Asia, where HSBC has wealth clubs in China and Hong Kong.

‘Some of the more flexible features have made this a real success in Asia, for example converting part of the wealth centre into exercise rooms,’ Xian says.

The London wealth club’s answer to this is hosting a Wimbledon festival in its open-plan event space on the seventh floor most recently.

The idea is customers can pop to nearby Selfridges for a shopping trip and then come in to speak to their adviser or wealth manager. 

It is also within proximity of links to Heathrow, where international customers jet in and out of, though most of those who will use the wealth club are based in central London.

‘Having premises here in this vicinity and location allows us to do just that,’ says Xian.

How 1m customers are now ‘Premier’ 

HSBC has 1million Premier customers and 9,000 private banking customers. 

Premier customers must have an income or investments worth £100,000 annually while HSBC Private banking customers must have investments worth at least £1.5million.

The wealth club does not have ATMs and a bank counter like a traditional bank branch.

HSBC said most of the customers coming to the wealth centre are seeking advice on and managing their investments.

They might also be speaking to HSBC advisers about succession and legacy planning as well as protection and insurance.

Customers do not have to pay a fee to come to the wealth hub or use its meeting rooms and spaces, which is an extra perk of being a Premier customer.

The hub has 12 meeting rooms and multi-purpose spaces, including a family room, and an event space which can host 50 people for presentations and talks.

There is no minimum or average balance that a HSBC Premier or a Private banking customer needs to meet to be allowed into the wealth club, apart from the minimum required to be a Premier or Private customer.

HSBC is on a recruitment drive, aiming to recruit 200 staff to build up its Premier offering in the UK.

Carmelita is part of a five-strong team of staff who are on hand to help run the wealth centre.

Her background is in financial services having previously worked for Goldman Sachs as a contractor.

She says: ‘We’re a new team but we love working here. 

‘It’s great to be part of the positive work the HSBC wealth centre is doing for customers.’

The wealth club comes after the Government scrapped a regime for non-doms, which meant those who were non-UK domiciled for tax purposes did not have to pay UK tax on money made outside of the UK. 

It has sparked fears of an exodus of millionaires from the UK.

But HSBC is bullish on the UK as an attractive place for wealth and remains confident it will continue to be so.

One in three wealthy HSBC investors invest outside of their home market, with the UK being in the top three locations for asset allocation HSBC found.

Why do they want to park their wealth here? ‘There are things here that are really attractive to our clientele, including the stability of the rule of law in the UK which can’t be taken for granted,’ says Xian.

HSBC is planning to launch another wealth club in the UK with the location for a second site currently under consideration.

It is currently working on establishing 50 Premier lounges for Premier customers in HSBC branches. 

Muswell Hill in London, Leeds Park Row, and Leicester have already had their sites updated with more planned by the end of the year.

These will aim to replicate the look and feel of the London wealth club in its branch network.