SINGAPORE – Financial services giant HSBC is seeking more than 100 artificial intelligence specialists for its first global AI center of excellence to be established in Singapore in late 2026.
HSBC announced in a July 27 news release that the AI Center of Excellence will work with its wealth management and global payments solutions teams, with London-based chief AI officer David Rice appointed in early 2026.
For wealth management, this includes AI-powered Wealth Journeys and AI Portfolio Builder.
In the global payments space, HSBC is Develop an agent solution For corporate treasurers and AI-enabled e-commerce payments.
Eventually, the tools built in Singapore will be used across HSBC’s global network.
Areas of focus include natural language processing, data science, AI governance, and human-centered design. HSBC is also considering hiring business specialists who are familiar with AI.
HSBC announces partnership and Educational and government institutions in Singapore. We focus on building a talent pipeline. Despite the concerns expressed by some observers; New graduates face challenges when entering technical rolesThe bank told the Business Times (BT) it would work with universities to develop and place new talent.
In Singapore, HSBC employs more than 3,600 people.
Additionally, HSBC plans to add 100 relationship manager roles across Premier Banking and Private Banking in Singapore over the next two years to attract high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth customers.
The bank also told BT it would continue to invest in training. For example, through the Wealth Academy program in partnership with London Business School.
In fiscal year 2025, there were more than 5,000 wealth relationship managers and product specialists across the HSBC Group.
HSBC Group CEO Georges Erkederi said Singapore “plays a fundamental role in our growth and leadership position in Asia”.
He added: “Singapore’s strong talent and dynamic ecosystem will help drive our global AI vision. We will enable our colleagues to leverage AI to create personalized experiences for each customer and deliver them securely, in real-time and at scale, while keeping human judgment, decision-making and responsibility at the center.”
HSBC Singapore CEO Wong Kee Joo said the expansion “reflects our confidence in the country’s future as a leading hub for wealth, trade and innovation.”
“This also strengthens HSBC Singapore’s role as a platform to serve regional customers and build capabilities that can be extended across our global network,” Wong added.
He elaborated further on the bank’s three strategic areas that it believes are consistent with the Singapore Economic Strategy Review’s objective of positioning Singapore as a hub for AI, trade and investment.
He told BT: “One is to strengthen Singapore’s role as a connected and trusted hub, with so much investment in ASEAN starting from Singapore. The second is to foster a more dynamic corporate ecosystem so that more Singapore-based companies can scale and succeed globally.”
Third, HSBC will look at how it can achieve global leadership in its areas of strength, Wong added.
Payments and technology
Among the areas the AI Center of Excellence will work on is agent-based e-commerce, Wong said. The bank is already working with Mastercard to pilot an end-to-end agent commerce flow for companies sourcing office furniture.
The Singapore pilot will connect the procurement ecosystem, including multinational corporate buyers, Singapore-based procurement platform SourceSage, and e-commerce supplier FortyTwo, with HSBC to enable secure payments.
Wong said possible future scenarios being considered by the AI Center of Excellence include AI agents in enterprises talking to AI agents in banks. “This is how we see AI being integrated into our various platforms and decision-making processes,” he added.
Mr Wong pointed out that such innovative processes reflect Singapore’s potential to become a trusted hub for payment solutions.
HSBC Singapore is already working hard in this area. In 2025, we established a Quantum Center of Excellence to study how emerging quantum technologies can be applied to financial services.
This means focusing on quantum-safe security to protect critical infrastructure from future quantum attacks. The center will make trial stands and real-world use cases available to regulators, researchers and fintech companies.
HSBC is also working on tokenized deposits and blockchain technology. This is one way to make your supply chain faster and more secure, as all of your company’s suppliers can be verified on a single platform.
Wong said the solution has already been rolled out in six countries: Singapore, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, the United States and the United Arab Emirates.
Regional expansion of companies and businesses
Mr Wong said a recent HSBC survey of Singaporean companies found that almost all companies (about 98%) had an ambition to expand overseas. The bank aims to provide the right structures, platforms and connectivity to support international expansion.
Mr. Wong said, “We are investing heavily in new technologies, technologies that drive and meet customer expectations. As an international bank, we need to invest in these areas to build a global transaction banking platform that can support our customers across all regions and geographies. This will give businesses a single, holistic view of all their trade flows across multiple markets.”
This is particularly relevant for Singapore, which is HSBC Singapore’s regional hub for supporting customers across the ASEAN region.
Apart from serving large corporates, the HSBC Innovation Banking Platform for Singapore was launched in October 2025.
The platform supports startups and provides expertise while helping them scale and connect with investors. Mr Wong said 900 HSBC professionals use the platform and the bank is equipped to provide business operational advice to start-ups, including the right mix of equity and debt.
“Many of these founders have great ideas, but may not have as much experience managing day-to-day trading and working capital requirements,” he said.
“We work with private equity firms to provide solutions that help our portfolio companies manage their working capital. We leverage our extensive global network to connect them with new opportunities with other startups, family offices and investors.”
wealth
In the wealth space, HSBC views its services as a continuum, allowing the bank to continue supporting entrepreneurs after an initial public offering, for example.
“We then create and build products to support entrepreneurs’ growth and also help them with legacy planning,” Wong said.
“The first wave of entrepreneurs made money in real estate, the second wave made money in manufacturing. Many of these new entrepreneurs are in health tech, clean tech and technology-related sectors. At HSBC, we want to offer them holistic solutions that look after their businesses and personal finances.”
Singapore is a major wholesale offshore booking center and wealth hub within ASEAN. HSBC Singapore continues to invest in capabilities, delivery and customer experience. The bank earlier announced it would double its technology spending over five years and open four new wealth centers starting in 2024. Business hours
