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HSBC Holdings on Monday said its pre-tax profit in India declined by 19.3 per cent from a year earlier to $653 million in calendar year 2013 on account of losses in retail banking and wealth management business, and lower earnings in global banking and markets operations.
The retail banking and wealth management business of HSBC India incurred a loss of $21 million last year compared with its $41 million profit before tax in 2012.
"In India, we revised our wealth management product offering to ensure customers' needs were being met and to improve customer satisfaction levels," HSBC said. The revision in product offerings led to lower wealth management sales, the bank added.
The global banking and markets business' pre-tax India profit fell to $418 million from $497 million during this period.
Earnings from commercial banking operations here, however, improved to $113 million in 2013 from $89 million a year earlier. HSBC is the second largest foreign bank in the country in terms of network with 50 branches across India.
Increased use of service centres also led to the bank incurring more expenses in India. HSBC employs 31,000 employees in India, which remains one of its priority growth markets.
The bank also said it was co-operating with the relevant US authorities, who are probing tax reporting requirements of some of the US-based clients of HSBC India.
