HSBC offshore legal team in Malaysia gets go-ahead
HSBC has established an offshore legal team in Malaysia following a successful pilot scheme last year.The bank piloted the scheme last February, sending a team of four lawyers to its global service centre in Kuala Lumpur to assist the team in the UK, with the Malaysian group largely dealing with volume legal queries.Following the trial, the bank is establishing a permanent team based in the region, with five additional lawyers joining the function. The bank is one of the first financial institutions to establish an offshore legal team.
February 25, 2009 at 11:30 PM
2 minute read
Bank giant's Malaysia offshore legal pilot goes permanent
HSBC has established an offshore legal team in Malaysia following a successful pilot scheme last year.
The bank piloted the scheme last February, sending a team of four lawyers to its global service centre in Kuala Lumpur to assist the team in the UK, with the Malaysian group largely dealing with volume legal queries.
Following the trial, the bank is establishing a permanent team based in the region, with five additional lawyers joining the function. The bank is one of the first financial institutions to establish an offshore legal team.
HSBC corporate banking head of legal Keith Ford, who led the initiative, told Legal Week: "I am delighted with the progress in Kuala Lumpur. The team now consists of nine people and is certainly viewed by myself and my colleagues as an integral part of our wider UK legal team."
He added: "HSBC is a global company – indeed, only 20% of our profits are derived from the UK – so it makes sense to have a quality workforce in all the main markets where we operate."
The work of the legal department has also been extended, with the Malaysian team carrying out instructions above its initial volume work.
Ford said: "The team undertakes a mixture of legal work ranging from straightforward banking queries right through to more complex legal work."
The decision to offshore part of the work of the UK legal team is part of a wider review of HSBC's back-office functions, with the team's human resources part of a similar process last year.
This news follows HSBC's expansion of its knowledge-sharing venture SmartSearch. The bank added Mayer Brown's Asian arm to the scheme, which allows its in-house legal team to access knowhow and precedents at panel firms.
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