News Release

Sir John Bond to Deliver Margaret Thatcher Lecture Series Address

8 March 2002

HSBC Holdings plc Group Chairman Sir John Bond will be the guest of honor and speaker at the English-Speaking Union of the United States Margaret Thatcher Lecture Series Dinner. Sir John is the first person to deliver a speech since Lady Thatcher in December 1999. The dinner will be held at the Plaza Hotel on Tuesday, March 12, 2002, and will benefit The English-Speaking Union of the United States.

"We are honored and pleased that Sir John has accepted our invitation to speak at this important event," said William R. Miller OBE, Chairman, The English-Speaking Union of the United States. "He has had a long association with the ESU, from being an ESU exchange scholar in 1959 to becoming an ESU Governor in London in 1997."

As an ESU scholar, Sir John spent a year in the United States at the age of 18 - the beginning of what he describes as, "his love affair with America." His lecture will look at differences between North American and European capitalism as well as prospects for China.

Sir John joined The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited in 1961 and worked in Asia for 25 years and the USA for five years, before moving to London in 1993.

He is Chairman of the Institute of International Finance, Washington DC, and was elected President of the International Monetary Conference (IMC) in June 2001. He became a non-executive director of Ford Motor company in July 2000 and of the Bank of England in June 2001.

Tickets for the black-tie event begin at $500.00 for ESU members and can be obtained by calling 212-997-0188 or by emailing Gabriel Saffioti.