Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Background
The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation’s
(HSBC) association with the banking industry in India
goes back about 150 years and is nearly as old as the
history of banking in the country. The association
commenced in 1853, when the Mercantile Bank of
India, China and London was established in Mumbai,
with its headquarters in London. The Mercantile Bank
was taken over by the HSBC Group in 1959. The
HSBC Group has so far invested US$ 590 million in
India and employed about 3,150 people as on March
31, 2004. In 2003-04, the bank had assets of about
US$ 5.51 billion.
Software development
To leverage the software expertise available in India,
the bank has set up a software development centre in
Pune for developing solutions for HSBC Group’s offices
worldwide.
Future Plans
While HSBC has acquired assets and customers from
other departing foreign banks here, it was earlier
not keen on buying a minority stake in a local bank.
This strategy has changed with HSBC’s acquisition
of a 14.62 per cent stake in UTI Bank, an Indian private
bank with a substantial retail portfolio. HSBC has