News Release

Kiratsous and Nelson Named Co-Heads of Financial Institutions Group for the Americas

1 August 2006

HSBC today announced the appointment of Stephan Kiratsous and David Nelson as co-heads of the financial institutions group (FIG) for the Americas within the global banking division.

They report to Anthony Bernbaum and Mark Stadler, global co-heads of FIG and George Foussianes, head of global banking, Americas and chairman of investment banking, Americas. Kiratsous and Nelson are responsible for further developing both the investment and commercial banking businesses in the Americas across the full spectrum of sectors within FIG. The sectors include banks, broker-dealers, fund managers and insurance.

Kiratsous joined HSBC in May 2005 as the head of insurance investment banking for the Americas. Prior to this, he was a managing director in Merrill Lynch's investment banking division where he focused on mergers, equity and debt capital raising for the insurance industry. David Nelson joined HSBC in May 2004 as head of insurance sector coverage for the Americas within the former corporate and institutional banking division. Previous to this, he ran the insurance banking practice at Chase Manhattan Bank for twelve years where he was responsible for managing the global investment and corporate banking businesses for the bank's insurance industry clients.

HSBC's global banking division encompasses corporate and investment banking, global sector management, project and export finance, and asset and structured finance.

Media Contacts

• Juanita Gutierrez
• Juanita.gutierrez@us.hsbc.com
• HSBC - North America
• 212.525.6282