HSBC to expand India operations

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, NOV. 27. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd. (HSBC) is planning to expand its operations in India by employing around 1,500 people over the next one year.

Addressing a press conference after HSBC's global board meeting here today, its Chairman, Mr. David Eldon, said, ``Its not just of a banking business in India but lot of processing work.'' HSBC is having a processing centre in Hyderabad and another one will be opened in Bangalore. A software development centre of the bank is functioning from Pune.

This is the first time the HSBC global board is meeting in India. Further, this is the second meeting of the board outside Hong Kong. The last board meeting was held in Shanghai.

The new back-office processing centre being set up in Bangalore will employ 600 and the Hyderabad centre will increase its workforce to 1,800 next year from the current strength of 1,100. Its two other processing centres are in China. The software centre in Pune would employ 300 people. The bank has already invested around $15 million in Hyderabad and is opening a new branch in Bangalore tomorrow. HSBC is also setting up four more branches at Coimbatore, Ludhiana, Jaipur and Noida, taking the total number of branches to 33.

Mr. Eldon said the bank would focus on the personal financial services such as credit cards, car loans and mortgages.

He also said that the bank's co-branded credit card business with Punjab National Bank (PNB) was a big success as HSBC has outsourced around 50,000 cards from PNB.

The bank will also be floating its mutual fund in the current fiscal year. It has already received the RBI clearance for the asset management company (AMC) for which the group will bring in the necessary capital.

The minimum capital required for AMC is $5 million. HSBC is also interested in insurance business in India but not with a 26 per cent equity stake as is permitted for foreign partners in India.

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