He’s no stranger to the Philippines.

Sandeep Uppal’s daughter was born in Manila in the late 1990s when he was first assigned here by HSBC, one of Britain’s biggest global bank. Eventually he left to work in Hong Kong, United Kingdom and Mauritius, but found himself back in the country in 2022. This time as the President and CEO of HSBC Philippines.

He was glad to return to a country were expatriates are “well integrated into the wider society” and also because the Philippines brings fond memories.

“This is where we started our family with the birth of our daughter in Manila when we were posted here in the late nineties. Having lived twice in Manila, I would say Philippines stands out in how welcoming the country is and how internationally oriented are the people,” said Uppal.

Long history, and counting

HSBC is one of the oldest foreign private banks in the Philippines. It is 148 years old this year.

The British giant is a close partner of both the government and the corporate sector. As pointed out by Uppal, from 1899 to 1910, HSBC was the official depository of the US government in the Philippines and was an advisor in the creation of a currency system under the Philippine Gold Standard Act of 1903. Three years later, in 1906, it funded the construction of a 150-mile Manila-Dugapan Railway extension.

Uppal said today, HSBC is still actively supporting the government by arranging sovereign bond issues, promoting the country as an investment destination. Recently, the bank signed a memorandum of understanding with the trade department to do just that, bring in more foreign direct investments here.

He said it is an honor as HSBC Philippines’ CEO to “continue with this rich legacy specially as we approach the 150th year anniversary of presence in the Philippines in 2025.” The bank has a slogan to “build a great franchise” based on the three “Gs”: Growing Economy, Growing Population, and Growing Liberalisation.

Focus on ‘green’ lending

HSBC recently announced a $24.5 million (P1.35 billion) green loan to an infrastructure unit of a conglomerate for a Cebu-based local waste management operation. The bank said the loan is part of its commitment to achieving net zero in its operations and supply chain by 2030, and in its financing portfolio by 2050.

HSBC has ongoing work and consultations with clients to help reduce their emissions and scale up low-carbon solutions, as it reduces its own.

Uppal said their decisions are always in line with their overall climate strategy. “We continue to partner on more exciting innovative solutions,” he said.

The government, in particular the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), has taken concrete actions to push and pursue its sustainability agenda. The Philippines has committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 75 percent by 2030 under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The BSP, with the Department of Finance, co-chairs the Green Force which is responsible for the country’s sustainable finance roadmap.

“There is definitely clear progress towards sustainable financing,” said Uppal, citing BSP’s Sustainable Finance Framework issued in 2020. He also noted the DOF’s own roadmap and guiding principle for sustainable finance.

“Just last year, the Philippines ranked the largest issuer of Sustainable Bonds ($7.8 billion) according to the Climate Bonds initiative report (State of the Market 2022 report ASEAN). However, looking into the same report, we find that while the amounts of sustainable finance issuance are increasing, the number of individual corporates participating are only a handful. It would be good to see this increase so that the adoption of sustainable finance is broad based. On the bank finance side, some of the recent policy incentives from BSP have been very welcomed by the banks and we now need to see that much more demand for such facilities,” he said.

Uppal also noted “huge potential” for renewable energy investments and its supply chain “given the 35% clean energy goal by 2030.” Other funding projects they see potential are transmission facilities, battery systems, and waste management industry – “specially with the recent EPR (extended producers’ responsibility) law being implemented that aims to require large corporations to recover 20% of their plastic footprint.” In the transport sector, the bank is excited about investments in electric vehicles (EV) and the associated ecosystem.

Over 30 years a banker

Uppal grew up thinking he wanted to be a banker. He went to school aiming to be a banker and to no one’s surprise, ended up a global banker. He holds an MBA from XLRI, a leading management school in India, and an economics degree from Delhi University.

He was destined for this job. He joined HSBC in 1993 as a local executive in India. By 1997, he was one of the prestigious international manager cadre of the bank. This gave him the opportunity to work in five countries across three continents: India, UK, Mauritius, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. 

“Other than the breadth of the roles, I have really enjoyed being exposed to a range of countries as well as cultures and making some dear global friends along the way,” he said.

The drawback, if one could call it that, is that as an international banker, he must be prepared to up and go to a new assignment in a new location at all times, even on short notice.

Uppal understood this as a global executive. “While working across countries is a real privilege (it) does mean that one has to uproot the family every few years and say goodbye to the country, friends and colleagues. Thankfully, global connectivity is now great for both travel and communication allowing relationships to flourish. When speaking to bank expatriates from another era, it is fascinating to hear that they travelled from London to HK on a ship and their correspondence would take the same route!” he said.

Still, he’s living his dream and ambition. “From an early stage, I have had a huge fascination for banking and thus I would still be in banking even if not as a CEO,” said Uppal. 

One of his favorite roles as banker was as head of the multinational corporations or MNC business. “(This) was hugely satisfying given the breadth of countries and sectors that exposed me to,” he said.

Friends, golf, and some

Uppal is a believer and supporter of work life balance.

“Every day is different. I start my day with a swim which is a real wake up and get to my desk early so that I could leave on time to spend time with the family,” he said.

His weekends are unstructured, he makes sure it stays that way, to counter his highly structured work week. “I like to keep the weekend somewhat unstructured around meeting friends, dining out, golf and some gym,” said Uppal.

The two-day break is more relaxing for him especially since when Friday comes, he has cleared most of his emails. As much as possible, no pending correspondents over the weekend. “Many are surprised when I say mostly none (unread emails) as I do not like a list staring me in my face! As a courtesy to the sender, I do read all the emails in a timely manner and take action or move to an appropriate folder in case not time bound,” said the CEO.

As he values more time spent with family, time with friends and colleagues are equally given opportunity since they can’t help but consult him in all aspects of work and life in general, like a guru.

“I do spend time with colleagues both in Philippines as well as globally where one constant advise I provide is that increasingly careers are like marathon and thus, plan appropriately. When I started working, careers were expected to extend to three decades which already in many parts is closer to four decades. For one to go through a period as long as that, one needs to plan well, be consistent in performance over the long term, need stamina i.e remain healthy and last though not the least, enjoy it as careers are too long to be miserable,” said Uppal.