HSBC plans to open more branches in India

Hyderabad, Apr 9 (UNI) The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) is planning to expand its business by opening more branches in the country.

Addressing a press conference here today, Head of Personal Financial Services, India, Nicholas G Winso said the bank had applied to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for permission to open 30 branches in the country.

Stating that bank would take steps to open branches after getting the RBI approval, he said the HSBC was offering a full range of banking and financial services from its 47 branches in 26 cities in the country.

With a credit card base of over two million customers in India, the bank had 170 ATMs and some more would be opened in future.

In order to reach out to untapped segment of customers, who had so far no access to organised lending from banks, HSBC Pragati Finance was launched in November last to offer personal loans ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 through its branches with no collateral or guarantee requirement, he informed.

The bank had direct investments of over 1.3 Billion US dollars into the country and was custodian to over 50 per cent of the FII invested in India.

He said the bank had recently launched 'One World,' a unique account package put together as a joint banking proposition by HSBC Bank Middle East, UAE and HSBC India. The package, includes opening of accounts in India while being in the UAE as well as doing the same from India.

Regarding NRI services, he said the HSBC's presence in 82 countries across the world enabled them to provide comprehensive banking solutions for Non Resident Indian customers wherever they were and NRI customers were a key target segment for HSBC in India.

He said the HSBC group, one of the largest banking and financial services organisations in the world, has around 9,500 offices in 76 countries, serving over 125 million customers.

UNI