Child cancer charity may ditch HSBC

The children's cancer charity Puttinu Cares is considering switching banks because the group's connection with HSBC has "backfired" to its detriment, a committee spokesman said.

What started off as a promising partnership with the bank has turned into a relationship in which the charity reaps little benefit, according to the spokesman. Not only is the bank's sponsorship modest but the public impression is that HSBC is the financial backbone behind the charity - an erroneous notion that is keeping potential donors from including the charity in their list of recipients.

Since the charity was set up six years ago, HSBC has donated about €70,000 to the support group but the beneficiary would be practically paying that sum back to it this year, as it is forking out €55,000 a year in interest on a loan it has taken out to buy three apartments in Sutton in the UK to host Maltese families whose children are undergoing cancer treatment.

Over the next decade, the Puttinu Cares Children's Cancer Foundation would be paying the bank €350,000 in interest while the bank in the meantime benefits from the marketing through its association with the charity, the spokesman said.

On top of that, the spokesman complained that the bank is claiming to be "indispensible" to the support group and has often "hijacked" its events for marketing purposes.

The details of the loan were issued by the charity last month in a press release which pointed out that HSBC was charging the beneficiary a subsidised commercial interest rate of 6.1 per cent on what is effectively a house loan, now standing at 3.35 per cent for private clients.

Set up "from zero" to collect funds and ease the suffering of child cancer patients and their families, the support group had asked HSBC for the Puttinu name.

In fact, if the relationship with HSBC is ditched, the charity may have to do away with the logo, despite its now strong connection with their cause, because the angel cartoon character, Puttinu, was created for the bank. The current logo has the words: "Supported by HSBC Cares For Children Fund".

An agreement was reached with the bank six years ago whereby it pledged €4,666 a year and the Puttinu logo, bearing the letters HSBC, which appear every time on anything the support group does.

The result is that the public and major donors are under the impression that the bank is Puttinu's main sponsor, which is scaring away potential benefactors, the Puttinu committee is now discovering.

But the charity is moving ahead on its own steam. The fund-raising activities, and in particular a football marathon, which the support group has organised have, over the years, raised a total of €425,300, while other events by individuals in aid of Puttinu amounted to another €70,000 or so annually.

These funds allowed it to realise the dream of purchasing the property in the UK. "We used to rent out apartments but when we started raising more funds we decided it made more sense to buy three apartments in Sutton, UK, close to the hospital (where the children receive their treatment)," the spokesman said. Over the past three years, about 100 families had to seek further treatment abroad.

Asked why the charity was raising the issue now and not when the loan was taken, the spokesman said one of the disadvantages of the HSBC association was the fact that, when they shopped around, no bank wanted to loan the money in the circumstance. But now the committee is considering turning to another bank that can offer better rates.

The committee already has plans for another name and logo if it has to give up Puttinu. It intends to organise a competition and rope in schoolchildren to design the most appropriate character.

A spokesman for HSBC said the bank did not want to comment until it was informed of the committee's decision, adding it would respect its choices.