HSBC to focus on retail, SME loans

Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) is planning to change the business mix gradually in India.

The bank has decided to focus on small and medium scale industries (SMEs) and mid-market enterprises (MMEs) in the next couple of years as it feels that SMEs and MMEs in India are bankable entities now.

Naina Kidwai, country head (India) of HSBC,  said that the bank, a late entrant in the SME space in India, is planning to catch up. She pointed out that HSBC wants SME, MME and retail business in India to have equal weightage in its total business compared to its corporate business.

"SME is a bankable proposition for us in India. In BSE, more than 80% of the listed companies are MMEs. We want to replicate our retail banking operation in the SME space," she said.

HSBC was a late entrant in retail banking space too. According to Kidwai, corporate operations now constitutes more than 75% of the business of the outfit. The bank now wants the weigtage of its corporate business to come down to 50% by 2009, and non-corporate business like SME and retail to double from 25% to 50%.

"For this, the retail and SME business have to grow much faster than corporate business. Our experience shows that it is possible," Kidwai added.

Commenting on future targets, she said the bank is targeting a net profit of $300 million from the Indian operations in the next couple of years from the current level of $250 million..