The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is in the process of setting up a non-banking financial company to cater to new market segments, its chief executive officer and group general manager (India) Niall S K Booker said on Friday.
"We see a lot of opportunities for NBFC and have already begun the process to have one, but before that comes into being, certain restructuring needs to be done and also some requirements fulfilled", Booker told reporters in Pune.
Earlier, he inaugurated HSBC's second branch in Pune, taking the number of the foreign bank's branches to 12 in Maharashtra and the overall tally in India to 42.
On the bank's second branch in Pune, he said the city has some big business houses, BPOs and many young as well retired people whom the bank would like to provide its services.
About the expansion plans, Booker said, "It depends upon the regulator. We will take advantage of whatever branches are allocated to us. We will keep expanding as and when allowed to do so."
Booker said HSBC last year had announced the setting up of a BPO in Kolkata, and was conceptualising a building in Hyderabad and plans to add one more software development centre besides the existing one in Pune.
Asked if HSBC planned to increase its stake in the UTI Bank, Booker said, "Our stake in the Indian private bank has got diluted," adding that there was a need to hold discussions with the regulator in this regard.
To another question whether HSBC Ltd in India would become a subsidiary of the parent company or converted into a wholly-owned unit of the latter in the coming days, he said one of the disadvantages of being a subsidiary is that there is no legal obligation to fund the parent company.
