Threats--
*Downturn in American spending.
As interest rates rise and the housing boom ends, Americans are
predicted to rely less on consumer credit and more on their saving
skills to get by. The drop in American spending will be bad for the
global economy as a whole, and HSBC will certainly be affected. In
2005, HSBC pretax profits rose 5% to $10.64bn (£6bn) for the first six
months of the year, largely on the rise in consumer finance for
growing consumer spending.
*Employees striking.
Last year, British employees held a strike involving 1,500 workers at
HSBC branches in London. At its annual meeting, striking workers
stood outside, handing out bags of nuts and saying that they are paid
"peanuts" while HSBC experiences record profits. Strikes such as
this, especially in union-conscious Europe, are bad for image reasons
and HSBC needs to take action to ensure that its workers are happy
just as its customers are.
*Email viruses.
Last year, HSBC Group's CEO announced that HSBC received tens of
thousands of email viruses a day and must spend great amounts of money
to prevent these from causing systemwide damage. As most banking is
done on computers, even one virus could cripple HSBC. On their worst
day in 2004, the bank received 100,000 attacks.
*Identity theft.
With a trillion dollars in managed assets, taking over HSBC is a
cracker's dream. HSBC has to remain on the front lines of security
and protect its customers, at the same time reassuring them that
online banking is safe. In August 2006, HSBC was accused, despite its
claimed airtight security, of having left its online customers open to
a security glitch for two years without fixing. Researchers at
Cambridge University claimed that any HSBC account could be broken
into within nine attempts.