HSBC Panama Acquisition

HSBC Holdings PLC
26 August 2005


                 HSBC BANK (PANAMA), S.A. TO ACQUIRE FINANCOMER

HSBC Bank (Panama), S.A. has signed an agreement to acquire the group of
consumer finance companies trading under the brand name Financomer.

The Financomer group, which had a gross assets of USD$ 41.5 million at 31
December 2004, entered the personal lending market in Panama in 1989 and
currently has 129 employees, 12 branches and 13,000 customers.

This transaction remains subject to regulatory approval.

Financomer, S.A. is the principal trading company. Its affiliate companies
include Financiera Flash, S.A., Grupo Financomer, S.A., Auto Empeno, S.A.,
Financomer Factoring, S.A., Financomer Leasing, S.A., Administracion Ejecutiva,
S.A., InmobiliariaJoel, S.A., Securities Risk & Co., Ltd. y EDSA International
Investments, Ltd.

HSBC has been present in Panama since 1972. HSBC Bank (Panama) S.A. has 16
branches and 54 ATMs, distributed between the cities of Panama, Colon,
Aguadulce, Chitre and David providing a full range of banking products and
services including commercial and consumer banking, HSBC Premier, private
banking, and corporate banking.

Notes to editors:

HSBC Holdings plc

HSBC Holdings plc serves more than 110 million customers worldwide through more
than 9,700 offices in 77 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific
region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. With assets of US$1,467
billion at 30 June 2005, HSBC is one of the world's largest banking and
financial services organisations. HSBC is marketed worldwide as 'the world's
local bank'.



                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange