HSBC has announced a further investment of EUR5.5 million that will go towards expansion plans for its Global Call Centre in Swatar. The Call Centre will employ an additional 260 full time equivalent call agents, managerial and support staff by the end of 2007. They will handle increased incoming calls from customers of HSBC UK.

The first call agents will be employed by end of July and a full recruitment programme will start immediately. Together with the existing workforce, HSBC aims to have 500 full time equivalent employees in the Call Centre by the year end. This new wave of recruits at the Call Centre will mean HSBC will be the largest employer in Malta, in the financial services sector.

The existing premises in Swatar will have an additional floor constructed on its existing three floors above road level. The ground floor will also be refurbished. The bright and airy offices of the Call Centre have state-of-the-art technology including telephony and video conferencing facilities. With this expansion, the Call Centre will have the potential to house over 320 seats. The additional investment will go towards the installation of new IT equipment and training, while staff costs will go up by circa EUR4 million per annum to EUR 8 million.

The HSBC Call Centre in Malta, in operation since October 2006, saw an initial investment of EUR7 million and the investment of this second phase is in the region of EUR5.5 million, which will make a total investment of circa EUR12.5 million. The Centre handles in-bound calls from HSBC’s UK customers, to complement its other Global Call Centres in Asia and the UK, and operates as a branch of UK based HSBC Bank.

At present, the total number of calls received per hour, including Saturday and Sunday averages 330 and is increasing daily. The daily rate of calls is now up to 8,400. Since the Call Centre’s first day of operation, there has been an escalation of weekly calls from 5,500 to over 42,000.