HSBC is using Cisco Teleconferencing technology to power a network of internal conference rooms.

The system provides the bank with fully-fitted meeting rooms, high-definition screens large enough to provide life-size high quality images, lighting, speakers, microphones and cameras.

HSBC said that it offered the "interactivity, spontaneity and nuanced communications experience of an in-person meeting".

The Cisco set-up replaces an existing teleconferencing solution which the firm said it had outgrown.

"Our current meeting and collaboration tools provide significant increases in productivity, but are no substitute for in-person meetings," said HSBC chief information officer Ken Harvey.

"Cisco Telepresence gives us the experience and benefit of actually being in the room with colleagues on the other side of the world without having to pack a suitcase."

HSBC is rolling out the Cisco Telepresence rooms in London, Chicago, Hong Kong, Mexico City, New York and Dubai.

The company said that by using the system for meetings it would save money and lower its environmental footprint.

The firm quoted an example of a meeting that might have required three employees to travel from Hong Kong to Chicago.

Using the Cisco TelePresence system could save HSBC up to $50,000 in airfare and travel costs in this situation.