HSBC North Cyprus

HSBC may call themselves ‘The World’s Local Bank’ but in Kyrenia in North Cyprus HSBC are ‘The World’s Local Meeting Place’.

Anyone who’s been to North Cyprus before is always intrigued by the fact that we’ve got an HSBC - no other big brand international names are here - I mean, we don’t even have a MacDonalds and there’s even a MacDonalds in China for God’s sake!  But we have got an HSBC…

And everyone knows where it is - I mean there’s an HSBC kiosk on the harbour by the Dome and there’s one in North Nicosia - but they don’t count - when you’re talking about HSBC in Northern Cyprus you’re talking about the one on the high street, the one that’s always packed out with curious expats.  Expats being curious not expats that ARE curious...although...hmmmm, let’s not go there!

So when arranging to meet anyone people will always say - I’ll meet you outside HSBC and people just know - they instinctively know that you mean the one on the high street - so much so that at certain key points - say on a Friday or Saturday night - the pavement outside the bank is literally heaving with people all straining to see the person they’re meant to be meeting. 

Now this has its advantages - we’ve been meeting up with quite a few ‘strangers’ of late in an effort to assist them find decent houses for sale here in North Cyprus - because let’s face it there’s plenty of chaff to get though - and when you start trying to explain where we live or where there’s a cafe we can meet for a chat I always just give up and say ‘you know HSBC?  Yeah, well I’ll meet you there at 11’.  So, I’m a contributory factor to the congestion that’s building into quite a serious issue actually in the middle of Kyrenia. 

Now that HSBC has become the world’s local meeting place in TRNC it’s no longer possible to walk to the paper shop, it’s no longer possible to get to the Turkish delight and saucy knicker shops (should you have an urge) and it’s no longer possible to actually walk from one end of the street to the other without being accosted and asked if you’re Jane, John, Pete or Mehmet - or whoever it is these poor watching and waiting people are searching for.

Maybe HSBC could relocate to bigger premises - or rather premises with a bigger outdoor sort of corral bit in which people could line up, take a number and wait out of the way for whoever it is they’re supposed to be meeting to go and get their residency sorted, get their electric switched on, find a hire car, meet an estate agent or just go for a coffee, beer, good night out.  I’d write and suggest it but after my letter to my bank manager at Turk Bankasi about the extortionate and excessive in the region of four hundred quid fees charged on a transfer (which amounted to less than the fees) fell on deaf ears, blind eyes or a totally disinterested person’s desk I don’t think I’ll bother.  Instead I’m suggesting people meet me by the big fountain with the birdies on it next to the car park...that way I can sit in the Windows Cafe or Cafe Shiraz if they’re late rather than checking my balance over and over again at the HSBC cashpoint in an effort to while away the minutes.