HSBC subsidiary acquisition

HSBC Holdings PLC
05 September 2003

The following announcement was issued earlier today by a third party that has
sold its investment in a software company to Household International Inc., a
wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc.

WAYNE, Pa. - Sept. 5, 2003 - Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE: SFE) today
announced that it has sold all of its equity interest (19.5 percent on a fully
diluted basis) in Kanbay International, Inc. to Household Investment Funding,
Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Household International, for an aggregate
cash consideration of approximately US$26 million. Kanbay is a premier global
systems integrator providing high-quality, high-value software solutions to the
insurance, banking, lending, credit card and securities industries.

"Since our association with Kanbay in 1998, they have been a model partner
company, profitably expanding their footprint of success from the United States
and India to Australia, Europe and Singapore," said Anthony L. Craig, president
and chief executive officer, Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. "Household's purchase
of our equity position in Kanbay allows us to profitably exit one of our legacy
investments and provides proceeds which can be deployed in a variety of ways":

* To increase our ownership interest in our strategic subsidiaries and fund
their respective growth plans.

* To acquire new strategic subsidiaries.

* And depending upon market conditions from time-to-time, to consider steps to
modify our capital structure which may include the repurchase of a portion of
our convertible notes due in June 2006 or the purchase of outstanding equity
securities.

Safeguard expects to record a book gain on the transaction of approximately
US$18million, which will be reflected in its financial results for the third
quarter of 2003.

Household is a long-term customer of Kanbay and currently owns 5.2 percent of
the company on a fully diluted basis. Household's acquisition of Safeguard's
stake increases Household's investment in Kanbay to 24.7 percent on a fully
diluted basis.

"Household is pleased to complement our 12-year history with Kanbay by
increasing our investment in their organization," said Ken Harvey, group
executive and CIO at Household International.

Raymond Spencer, chairman and CEO of Kanbay International stated, "We have
enjoyed a very fruitful relationship with Safeguard and are appreciative of the
support and guidance that Kanbay has received over the past five years. Kanbay
is very excited by the evolution of our strong partnership with Household and
HSBC, which positions us for continued growth in the financial services sector."

About Safeguard

Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE: SFE) is a technology operating company,
headquartered in Wayne, Pa., that seeks to create long-term value by taking
controlling interests in and developing its companies through superior
operations and management. Currently, Safeguard acquires and operates businesses
that provide business decision and life science software-based product and
service solutions. Safeguard's existing strategic subsidiaries focus on the
following vertical markets: financial services, healthcare and pharmaceutical,
manufacturing, retail and distribution, and telecommunications. Safeguard is
accessible via the Internet at www.safeguard.com.

About Household

Household International, headquartered in Prospect Heights, Ill., is a wholly
owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE: HBC), one of the largest banking
and financial services organizations in the world. Through its businesses,
Household is a leading provider of consumer loans, credit cards, auto finance
and credit insurance products in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.
In the United States, Household operates under the two oldest and most
recognized names in consumer finance - HFC and Beneficial. Additionally,
Household is one of the nation's largest issuers of private label and
general-purpose credit cards, including The GM Card(R) and the AFL-CIO's Union
Plus(R) card. For more information, visit the company's Web site at
www.household.com.

About Kanbay

Kanbay is a global integration and managed solutions company with a rich
heritage in serving the financial services industry. The company's solutions
help customers achieve sustainable business success and predictable value via a
customer-centric approach to deploying industry innovation, process excellence
and information technology solutions. Kanbay's solutions are a combination of
bundled and specialized solution sets, industry advancements, process excellence
and information technology enablement delivered via a flexible global delivery
model at the right cost.

Founded in 1989, Kanbay is headquartered in Rosemont, Ill. Kanbay also has U.S.
offices in Los Angeles and New York; a European office in Cambridge; Australian
offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth; offices in Hong Kong, Japan,
Singapore and Canada; plus the Kanbay e-Solutions Center in Pune, India.


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