In early March 2008, HSBC announced that its UAE brokerage arm, HSBC Middle East Securities (HMES), had received a license from the Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority (ESCA) to operate as a broker on the UAE’s bourses and that it would start trading within the same month. Executive met with Keith Bradley, HSBC’s Regional Head of Commercial Banking, and Charles P. Hall, CEO of the bank’s Lebanon Head Office, to talk about this new step and the HSBC’s strategy. E What value-added does this license as a broker in the UAE bring to HSBC? Bradley: It gives us presence and allows us to offer a range of services. There is a surge of investment in the GCC and so far trading had to be done through third parties, so we decided to eliminate the middleman and go directly onto the floor. E Why the UAE? Why not Kuwait or
