British financial giant HSBC, one of the biggest banks in the world, yesterday officially began operating in Costa Rica with high hopes of growing in the entire Central American region.

The bank purchased Grupo Banistmo, owner of Banco Banex, for $1.7 billion. As of yesterday, the Banex brand disappeared and was replaced by the HSBC logo.

HSBC Costa Rican general manager Sergio Ruiz said during a press conference yesterday that the London-based bank “came to Costa Rica to stay” and has “a long-term strategy to attract clients from all sectors of the market with diverse and new products.”

HSBC hopes to expand to open at least 100 new branches all over the country and add more employees to the 1,200 it inherited from BANEX. These workers will be trained in HSBC's high standards of customer service, said HSBC operations manager David Duncan.

Expanding throughout Central America and the Caribbean is key for the bank's growth since the region's economy offers “many more possibilities to financial service firms,” than mature markets such as Europe, Asia and North America, said HSBC assistant director of Central America and the Caribbean.

HSBC has more than 10,000 branches in 82 countries and almost 125 million clients.

-ACAN-EFE