Merrill Lynch HSBC, the online trading, banking and research venture, aims to move swiftly around the globe. Canada was the first country to go live on December 5th last, the same day the equity research unit of the United Kingdom site opened for private investors in a phased approach. Australia was next on December 18th, and they will be followed by Germany and Japan this year.

"We want to cover the globe outside of the United States," said Victor Dodig, London-based chief marketing officer for Merrill Lynch HSBC. "We're not late to the game. Internationally, the power of online investing is just starting." By 2005, it is anticipated that the Merrill Lynch HSBC service will be fully operational in up to 20 countries worldwide.

HSBC Holdings is providing the banking services - which include local account record-keeping, ATM access, debit cards, cheque cards, a branch presence and research - behind Merrill Lynch's investment portfolio, accounts and research. There is one global site at www.mlhsbc.com and country-specific Web sites will be localised, for example, at www.mlhsbc.co.uk or www.mlhsbc.ca.

The launches in Canada and Australia followed the transfer to Merrill Lynch HSBC in these countries of HSBC's Invest Direct discount brokerage, which has 70,000 accounts in Canada and 25,000 accounts in Australia. In the United Kingdom, the full service will be launched to the public by the end of this quarter.

"If we can keep someone's share of wallet from going elsewhere, then we'll be very happy," said Edward Goldberg, executive vice-president of operations and services for Merrill Lynch.

Since the announcement of the joint venture last April, the two companies have each committed $500 million (€531.35 million) of capital over a five-year period. Peter Hickman, chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch HSBC Canada, said they spent $10 million on technology in Canada alone.

The Canadian launch, Mr Hickman said, was "the culmination of six months of extraordinary effort. It is a new departure point for Canada's financial services industry." The key to what will make the difference, he said, is research that was previously available only to institutions or corporate clients, and will now be given free to clients who deposit a minimum of $3,200 in the Merrill Lynch HSBC Investment Access Portfolio account.

Canadian customers can read research from Merrill Lynch, Standard & Poor's and First Call, a Thomson Financial company. In addition, they can conduct online trading on stock exchanges in Canada, the United States and Hong Kong, and carry out telephone trading in seven other markets.

"This is the first time individual investors in Canada can have access to this quality research," Mr Hickman said. "We are focusing on delivering financial empowerment to the online self-directed investor," he added. The home page at www.mlhsbc.ca is fully customisable with personalised quote lists. He expects business to grow by 60 per cent, or by 40,000 accounts, this year.

The Canadian company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Merrill Lynch HSBC, which runs the UK service. A marketing campaign will begin after existing clients have been transferred to the new service.

In the UK, the research service gives consumers free access to equity research from Merrill Lynch and HSBC's teams of analysts. It is available to anyone resident in the UK who registers with the website. The service has been developed in conjunction with Multex.com, which will provide website hosting and real-time delivery of research.

The joint venture also plans to open a network of investment centres to help customers build a portfolio of investments that they could manage online. Charles Schwab & Co. opens 75 per cent of new accounts through its network of 370 branches, even though it does 80 per cent of its retail business on the Internet. E-Trade Group has already opened a location in a SuperTarget store in Georgia and it is expected to open a centre on Manhattan's Madison Avenue early this year.

In Canada, Merrill Lynch HSBC will co-locate in nine HSBC branches with its own kiosks and the venture is establishing a flagship investment centre in London this quarter. "This will be different from what other brokerages offer," Mr Dodig said. "There will be much hand holding and help," he said. The centres be for potential clients who wish to open accounts, but they will also be used to give educational seminars, he added.

"As the trading business gets more commoditised, those players that deliver value will win the game," he said.

In other countries, the joint venture will also springboard off the physical presence the two companies have in place. In Japan, Merrill Lynch has about 33 offices and HSBC has none. In the UK, HSBC has over 1,500 branches and Merrill Lynch has five. They each have 100 branches in Canada, while in Australia, Merrill Lynch has about six offices and HSBC has 18.

Mr Dodig is aware of the stiff competition facing the company in those markets. In Canada, TD Waterhouse holds the number one spot with more than one million accounts. In Australia, Commonwealth Securities, known as ComSec, has a 50 per cent market share and 537,000 customers, while in the UK Charles Schwab is number one, followed by Barclays Stockbrokers, which has over 250,000 active ShareDeal clients.

Still, Merrill Lynch HSBC's aim, he said, is within 18 to 24 months to be "number one or a strong number two in those markets".