India's manufacturing sector activity contracted for the third straight month in October amid falling levels of production and new orders, as the business climate within the country remained tough, an HSBC survey said on Friday.
In the latter half of the year, there would be some economic recovery and return to normal business conditions.
Real estate developers are hoping that the slew of tax concessions announced in Union Budget 2025, set to take effect this financial year, will spur demand for affordable and mid-segment housing, even as the broader housing market shows signs of fatigue.
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) is looking at entering the retail broking business to benefit from the rapidly growing middle class investors in India. It may scout for an existing retail broking house to hasten the pace of setting up business.
The deal is stuck because the Reserve Bank of India has declined to transfer the branch licences of RBS to HSBC.
The bank is expected to report a pre-tax profit of $21 bn.
The HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, a measure of factory production, stood at 51.3 in April, unchanged from 51.3 in March, amid moderate expansion of incoming new business orders.
While public sector banks have managed to maintain a growth of over 25 per cent during the year up to February, private and foreign banks have seen their growth in loan books shrink to single-digit rates on a year-on-year basis, as against over 20 per cent at the end of September, when the credit crisis intensified.
The bank said it is cooperating with the US Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue System (IRS) in their probes into whether certain HSBC companies and employees acted appropriately in relation to certain customers with US tax reporting requirements.
Foreign lender HSBC has decided to slash 193 jobs in its Indian consumer assets business segment after reviewing its portfolio in the backdrop of the prevailing economic conditions, the bank said.
The bank is looking to combat financial times.
Global bank HSBC has launched a new money transfer service for Indians living in the Gulf in a bid to boost its share of the multi-billion dollar India remittance pie.
Foreign banks were ahead in terms of technology, but that is no longer the case as Indian private banks steal the innovation march.
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The report published online said the redundancies, which are being announced to staff today, would affect all areas of the country, hitting employees in back office units that service HSBC's retail and small business customers. The current layoffs are in addition to the "500 redundancies signalled in December", it added.
The first tranche of $31 million was due on March 11, while the second instalment of $109 million was due on March 28.
It had entered the segment by pumping in over $290 million.
The bank is already under lens in the US following allegations that it violated anti-money laundering rules.
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd on Thursday announced several top-level executive moves and new assignments for its India operations.
A top court in the UK has ruled in favour of an Indian businessman that he can continue his claim of damages for $330 million against HSBC, which had refused to transfer money in his account to another bank on suspicion of money laundering.
HSBC's India staff have come under the scanner for deficiencies in their role as 'offshore reviewers' of the global banking giant's compliance to safety mechanism against money laundering and terrorist financing.
"India's GDP growth rate is about 6.5 per cent this year and our forecast is that the GDP would grow by 8 per cent in FY 11," HSBC India's CEO, Stuart Arthur Davis, told reporters in Mumbai on Monday.
A US Senate panel has accused global banking giant HSBC of exposing the country's financial system to various terror financing, money laundering and drug trafficking activities with transactions worth billions of dollars, due to poor risk control systems at the bank.
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has announced that its open offer for acquiring additional 20 per cent in UTI Bank at Rs 90 per share.
Slowing economy, election-related uncertainty and tighter monetary conditions pose risks for Indian markets and the BSE index, Sensex, is likely to hover around 20,250 by the end of this year.
British banking major HSBC on Thursday announced a consolidation exercise under which it will almost halve the number of branches in the country to 26, which will lead to 300 job losses.
Daniel Wager, who helped investigate HSBC for the federal agency, joined the HSBC's anti-money laundering team last November as a senior vice-president.
Citibank on Wednesday joined the list of foreign banks that have exited retail banking business in India. Mumbai-based Axis Bank completed acquisition of Citigroup's consumer business for Rs 11,603 crore. Under the deal, Axis acquired consumer banking businesses of Citibank India, which includes credit cards, retail banking, wealth management and consumer loans.
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is looking at investing over $400 million in India with organic growth driving expansion.
The two Indian banks will make available their combined network of 3,600 branches and a customer base of 40 million.
It is not often that you find a mechanical engineer leading the private banking business of a foreign bank in India.
HSBC Mexico said it paid a 'fine imposed by the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV), amounting to MXN 379 million (about $27.5 million), in connection with non-compliance with anti-money laundering systems and controls, including reporting requirements with regard to unusual transactions, as well as other prudential regulations.'
The HSBC/Markit purchasing managers index for the manufacturing industry stood at 50.1 in July, slightly more than 50.3 in June, indicating a broad stagnation of manufacturing operating conditions in India.
This marked an increase from 2,63,000 at the end of 2013
Though there has been policy progress in Europe, the global economic backdrop remains decidedly challenging, Eskesen said, adding domestic conditions have remained fairly stable, though, and underlying inflation has stayed firm.
The revelation against HSBC has woken up the Indian agencies who have now put its India employees under the scanner. The Revenue Intelligence wing and also the Reserve Bank of India will probe some rogue elements in the bank who could have possibly facilitated this offence which helped drug lords and terrorist groups park money by hoodwinking the security agencies.
It said Naisar Kothari, a resident of Bhavnagar in Gujarat, was arrested under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and he has been sent to the ED custody till December 22 by a court.
The many ways in which the fast-expanding bank got it wrong on money laundering.
