EXTRACT: Experiences such as Shell’s, which had to relinquish control of its Sakhalin 2 gas project to the state-owned Gazprom, have raised concerns about political interference.
THE ARTICLE
HSBC has applied for a Russian retail banking licence in a move that would make it the first UK bank to build a consumer presence in the former Soviet Union.
A retail banking presence would add to HSBC’s corporate and investment banking interest in the fast-growing Russian economy.
It is understood that HSBC wants to target personal and small business banking. Should it be awarded a licence, it may choose to operate just as a phone or internet bank without high street branches. The application was filed in October last year but no decision has yet been made.
Banking in Eastern Europe is growing rapidly but business is still treading warily in Russia, despite its being a “market and economy with an enormous amount of potential”.
Experiences such as Shell’s, which had to relinquish control of its Sakhalin 2 gas project to the state-owned Gazprom, have raised concerns about political interference.
Royal Bank of Scotland is linking up with Russia’s leading investment bank, Renaissance Capital, to provide currency, interest rate and credit derivatives to the Russian government and corporate clients. However, it has not applied for a licence.
Lehman Brothers, the US investment bank, is only returning to the region this year after a decade-long hiatus. No UK bank has a personal or small business banking presence in Russia.
HSBC is shifting its global expansion focus to Eastern Europe after failing to take advantage of the opportunities in the 1990s, when it was busy in Central and South America.
HSBC may be distracted from its expansion plans by problems at its HSBC Finance Corporation unit in the US. Bad debts in its US sub-prime mortgage book caused the bank to issue its first-ever profits warning last week
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/02/12/cnhsbc12.xml
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
