The lending to the small and medium enterprises (SME) segment in India of HSBC has reached 7% of the total loans given to SMEs by all banks in India.The Hong Kong-headquartered bank has achieved the market share in just 18 months of starting lending to the SMEs and despite having less than 1% share of the total banking market.HSBC did not provide the total outstanding loans to SMEs and also the share of SME exposure of their loan portfolio. HSBC's total assets were Rs 25,356 crore as on March 31, 2005, which has moved up around 30%. It has over 30,000 SME customers in the top five cities.Subir Mehra, head - commercial banking of HSBC India, said the achievement in SME lending is significant as HSBC is a small player in the total banking industry. He was speaking to reporters at the release of a survey conducted 4,000 SME businesses in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Americas.The survey showed SMEs in India are the most optimistic in the world about the economic growth prospects in 2006. It said 88% of the SMEs and 98% of MMEs (middle market enterprises) in India said the current economy is very good or fairly good.Mehra said Indian SMEs have gained confidence from the fact that the reductions in import tariffs over the last 4-5 years have not hurt their businesses.
