HSBC personal loan centres open

HSBC is to open 214 commercial centres across Britain, which will be authorised to make individual lending decisions of up to £1 million.

The move is designed to boost the banking trend back towards local decision-making for business customers.

The centres' managers will spend three out of every five days on the road meeting customers at their own premises, the Herald newspaper reports.

HSBC hopes this will help them make more informed assessments of customer needs and the local business environment.

The move follows the opening last January by HSBC of corporate banking centres. HSBC says the extension to other business customers "represents the next step in its commitment to locating senior bankers regionally and giving them the authority to make major lending decisions without referring to head office".

In total, HSBC plans to increase the number of dedicated UK local business bankers by 11 per cent to more than 1280 as part of a five-year £1.4 billion investment in customer service initiatives.

The centres' senior managers will typically spend at least four years in the role in order to build long-term relationships with clients.