Double Victory for HSBC Merchant Services at the European Card Acquiring Forum (ECAF) Awards

LONDON, April 7, 2010 - HSBC Merchant Services scored a double victory at the prestigious
European Card Acquiring Forum awards recently. The company was honoured to
receive the Merchant Award and the Performance Award for its work on merchant
performance measurement and continuous portfolio pricing analysis within
chargebacks.

The awards, among the very few dedicated to the merchant acquiring
business, are considered a high point in the card acquiring industry
calendar. In particular, the Merchant Award is widely perceived as one of the
most important of categories, given the vote is based on superior customer
service.

"We are thrilled to receive these awards from an independent expert in
the industry," said Darren Wilson, President HSBC Merchant Services, "and it
is a real boost for the teams involved to have external recognition of the
groundbreaking work we are doing to improve the efficiency and value of our
service."

The Merchant Award was given to HSBC Merchant Services for its Merchant
Performance Management Programme, which takes a multi-pronged approach to
establishing cost reductions for merchants. Anti-fraud measures, highly
stable authorisation systems and expert profiling and management of
transactions are all used to reduce interchange costs.

The Performance Award was presented in recognition of the company's
success in reducing chargebacks. A combination of technology and expert
support are used to reduce cost, including the same-day defence of
chargebacks, with both HSBC Merchant Services and their merchants sharing the
cost benefits.

"We have always been proud of our commitment to advancing the security,
reliability and value of card payment services," said Darren Wilson, "and
these programmes represent two of our more significant areas of activity."

Siobhon Watson, 02079925001, enquiries.hms at hsbc.com