HSBC’s Quinn Targets Lifting Wealth Business In China, India
HSBC returned to India last year, while also expanding its presence in other parts of Asia as well as the Middle East.
(Bloomberg) -- HSBC Holdings Plc’s top boss said he’s pushing to improve his firm’s wealth management capabilities in China and India to be on par with its key market of Hong Kong.
“We have a really strong wealth management business in Hong Kong,” Chief Executive Officer Noel Quinn said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. “I want an equally strong wealth management capability in mainland China, Singapore, for Asean, and in India.”
Quinn is hosting the bank’s three-day inaugural Global Investment Summit that kicked off in Hong Kong earlier Monday.
Along with other global banks, HSBC is building out its wealth-management operations to help offset the more volatile earnings derived from dealmaking and trading. HSBC returned to India last year, while also expanding its presence in other parts of Asia as well as the Middle East.
The London-headquartered lender last year agreed to buy Citigroup Inc.’s retail wealth management portfolio in mainland China, adding to its expansion in the world’s second-largest economy.
The deal came as growing concerns over the direction of the Chinese economy spooked foreign investors. China is also seeing a protracted slump in the country’s real estate market, which had been a major source of wealth growth, and a crackdown on private enterprise.
Quinn said he wants a platform of four strong pillars of wealth management” which includes, insurance, asset management and private banking.
In India, HSBC’s global head of wealth and personal banking Nuno Matos said in an interview last year that businesses in the South Asian nation want to make acquisitions overseas, and some of the 32 million expat Indians need wealth management services.
Separately, Greg Guyett who runs HSBC’s global banking and markets arm, said in an interview that he wants to hire senior bankers with good client relationships in places such as Singapore, Dubai, Riyadh and Mumbai.
HSBC reported fourth-quarter profit fell 80% after taking unexpected charges on holdings in a Chinese bank and from selling its French retail operations. However, rising interest rates globally boosted HSBC’s full-year earnings to a record.
The lender’s pivot to Asia over the past few years has been hampered by growing geopolitical tensions and sluggish economic growth in the world’s second largest economy. Initial public offerings have been depressed in Hong Kong, with proceeds slumping to the lowest in more than two decades last year.
--With assistance from Yvonne Man, David Ingles and Haslinda Amin.
(Adds Guyett interview in ninth paragraph.)
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