HSBC less present in Buffalo, but still influential

Now the bank has consolidated its local operations to a single site in Larkinville, in the shadow of office buildings adorned with KeyBank and M&T Bank brands.

HSBC has about 1,500 employees based in the Larkin U building, where the bank recently moved after leaving the downtown Atrium and leasing space in Depew.

The bank’s local employment is about half the total cited by HSBC several years ago – a knock-on effect of the bank’s restructuring in the United States and its withdrawal from local retail banking operations.

Instead, HSBC has focused more on the back-office work it does here, serving clients who can benefit from its global presence.

Despite all of these changes, Buffalo remains essential to HSBC’s day-to-day operations, said Michael Roberts, president and CEO of HSBC North America Holdings.

“It’s vital,” Roberts said during a visit to Buffalo on Wednesday. “We couldn’t run HSBC in the United States without Buffalo.”

Among other functions, the Buffalo office is responsible for payment processing.

“We support billions of US dollars in payments from Buffalo every day,” he said. “This is true not just for the United States, but also for all of our operations around the world, for all customers around the world who transact in U.S. dollars.”

Employees based here also fill key support roles such as technology, audits and compliance, he said.

Roberts told employees that HSBC’s investment in the renovated space it is leasing from the Larkin Development Group strengthens the bank’s commitment to the region.

“That’s something I hope you all fully appreciate: that we’re here. We’re here for good. We’re here for a long, long time, and we only have great opportunities,” he said. he declared.

Banks such as HSBC and Citi have found the Buffalo area to be a good fit for their work supporting financial services. They value its workforce, its banking heritage and the cost of doing business that is lower than New York and other major markets. Citi operates a financial services center in Getzville. Key has a big presence here, as does Buffalo-based M&T.

“Buffalo has always been fortunate to have a very skilled workforce,” Roberts said. “We have an educational corridor here. We and, frankly, many other banks and companies have built centers like ours here, simply because there is such good talent.”

Some local HSBC employees went on to work for the bank in other countries, he said.

HSBC’s roots in Buffalo date back decades, to when the bank purchased a 51% share of Marine Midland’s holding company in 1980. Seven years later, HSBC acquired full ownership of Marine Midland and , in 1999, Marine Midland was renamed HSBC Bank USA.

In 2013, HSBC left what is now called Seneca One Tower and invested $35 million in improvements at its Atrium and Depew offices, where the tower’s employees were relocated.

But as HSBC has reshaped its operations over the years, questions have arisen about Buffalo’s place in the British banking giant’s future.

A significant moment came in 2021, when HSBC announced that it was exiting retail banking in the United States and would create a smaller number of “wealth centers” to serve wealthy clients. One of these centers of wealth is in Amherst.

Roberts, who joined HSBC in 2019 after 33 years at Citi, said the bank’s strategic changes — and the rise of hybrid working — have led to a need for less office space in Buffalo.

“We’re really at the question of what HSBC’s core strategy is in the United States,” he said. “Buffalo is a vital part of the United States (operations). It’s not really a Buffalo-specific issue. It’s about what HSBC’s strategy is in the United States. And I can tell you that we have the strategy that we must have, which is to focus on our international capabilities.

Roberts planned to have lunch Wednesday with several Buffalo-area clients, all of whom have international businesses.

“They all depend on us to serve them all over the world in different ways,” he said.

So while HSBC maintains a presence in Buffalo, it sets itself apart from most other banks, with its branch networks conducting face-to-face transactions with customers.

Capitalizing on HSBC’s international reach, Roberts said, “is a much better way for us to serve our customers than trying to compete with a national bank without any really specific advantages.”

The Larkin U building provides HSBC with a refreshed local workplace.

When Roberts first visited HSBC’s offices in Depew a few years ago, his immediate reaction was that the bank needed a new location.

“This style of building was very common in the ’80s and ’90s: very large footprint, cavernous inside,” he said.

Mayor Byron Brown has congratulated HSBC on choosing a new headquarters for its local operations.

“HSBC’s move to Buffalo will have a positive impact in the Larkin neighborhood and throughout Buffalo,” he said.

Post-Covid, HSBC settled for a minimum office presence mandate for its employees, while other banks now require more days in the office. Roberts said his goal was to create a workplace where employees would want to come together and collaborate.

“What we saw was that by moving into a building like Larkin, attendance increased significantly,” he said. “People come back because they want to come back.”

Roberts spoke to a colleague at HSBC who told him he was back at the Larkinville office five days a week because he liked the new layout and all the amenities the area offered, including restaurants.

“What we realized is that people like to be around people,” Roberts said. “You can’t just bring people back if no one else is there.”