HSBC InvestDirect
By Attilio Montanari, Vice President, HSBC InvestDirect
HSBC InvestDirect, the self-directed brokerage arm of HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., is an online brokerage suited for not only domestic, but also globally-minded investors, which provides access to 30 domestic and international markets. With HSBC InvestDirect, you can access an integrated suite of research tools and trading capabilities right at your fingertips.
For HSBC InvestDirect, the surge in interest in the online investing space has been tremendous. A major component of our priorities in 2020-21 was to improve the stability and capacity of our website so that our customers can have a better trading experience. This proved timely as trade volumes continued to increase, particularly during the meme stock trading craze in early 2021. It is very important to us that our trading site remains reliable and is available to our customers.
Some other recent improvements we’ve made:
- Digital forms with e-signature feature – making it easier and more convenient for customers to sign and send in a form.
- Call-back feature – busy customers can use our call-back feature and we’ll call back as soon as an agent is free.
- Trading site improvements – we made some key features more visible and easier to find.
- Enhanced Tools & Resources page with great tips and demos.
HSBC InvestDirect has been motivated throughout the pandemic to maintain our high standards in customer experience. We are very proud of how all our teams came together with one goal in sight, despite the numerous challenges in a difficult time.
Looking Forward to 2022
HSBC InvestDirect will be focused on the launch of our new mobile trading app. The new trading app will allow customers to quickly execute trades in North American and overseas markets.
As a first phase to our digital strategy, in 2021 we added HSBC InvestDirect customer account balances to the HSBC mobile banking app. This gives customers a view of their full wealth holdings across banking and investments, and the feedback received was very positive. In the second phase planned by mid-2022, we will be introducing mobile trading capabilities.
We are also very excited about rolling out our “click to chat” feature on our trading site, which will allow our customers to communicate with us in real time. HSBC InvestDirect has a lot in store for 2022. We will continue to listen to feedback and focus on what is important to our customers.
Offering more educational pieces has also been an important trend in the industry. HSBC InvestDirect has supported customer education goals by partnering with the TMX this year for two virtual options trainings. We look forward to providing our customers with access to more of these events, along with access to additional investor insights from our HSBC affiliates.
We also realize that pricing and fees are very important to any investor, so we are constantly reviewing our fees to remain competitive and to be amongst the lowest in commission rates. We are also looking to introduce more educational pieces for our new younger investors to help them navigate the self-directed investing landscape.
