HSBC targets consumers, small business for a 50 per cent profit growth in India
18 Oct 2006
The Indian operations contributed $215 million to the London-based bank's net income, which earned $15.08 billion globally last year, reports quoted HSBC India CEO Naina Lal Kidwai as saying. HSBC is looking to India, China, Brazil and Mexico even as lending growth slowed in the developed markets, she said. By contrast India has recorded a 30-per cent annual growth in lending, the report pointed out.
The bank is extending more mortgages, credit cards and other forms of consumer finance in an economy growing at near nine per cent a year. Companies are also borrowing more to expand production and meet consumer demand.
HSBC recently launched a new `OneWorld' money-transfer service for Indians living in the Middle East, aiming to boost its share of the multi-billion dollar India remittance pie.
India is the world's largest receiver of remittances, approximately $23 billion a year. Some 35 per cent of that or about $8 billion originates from the Middle East.
HSBC, which operates 46 branches in 25 Indian cities, introduced a first-of-a-kind money transfer facility to India through HSBC's 79 ATMs in the UAE of a maximum of $10,000 a day.
HSBC, which calls itself the world's local bank, also launched `HSBC Pragati Finance' to extend its strategy of financial inclusion. The product is expected to add a larger number of consumers, otherwise excluded from organised lending, HSBC said.
HSBC also manages $6.5 billion equities and debt in India. The bank also has plans to expand into asset classes such as real estate. It has 22,000 employees in India, including 12,000 at a customer-contact centre and 3,000 at a software development center, after doubling its local workforce in the past two years. About 7,000 people work in the bank's main business
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