Premier facilities

I refer to Steve Ditchburn's letter (July 27).

I can confirm that a fee will be introduced in certain instances with effect from July 1, 2008, to customers who do not meet the qualifying criteria for Premier locally, or do not provide sufficient business to HSBC to warrant the normal free service. The fee will be waived to qualifying HSBC Premier customers locally and worldwide. I do apologise if we did not communicate this information properly.

The HSBC Group Global Premier Proposition provides substantial benefits for the global customer segment.

A description of these services and qualifying criteria is available on www.hsbc.com.mt/premier.

In the very near future we also plan to use our technology to assist HSBC Premier customers who hold HSBC accounts in countries around the world. Customers will be able to view all their HSBC Premier accounts locally and abroad on one Personal Internet Banking online and have the opportunity to transact from one country to another on-line and free of charge.

We do believe that the savings that a Premier Customer makes through all these benefits by far outweigh the fee that will be introducing next year for those existing Premier customers who fall short of the qualifying criteria.