Munter said the bank had seen heavy demands for investments in the real estate. However, he denied of any bubble existing in the same. The corpus for the fund was not yet fixed, he added. Commenting on the Indian operations, he said India is one of the key business areas for HSBC. It is among the top 10 profit contributors to HSBC.

HSBC is pumping in $3 million for its Hyderabad branch expansion. The bank is planning to relocate its branch to a 50,000 sq feet premises very soon. HSBC is also setting up a processing centre at Malad in Mumbai. The 200,000 sq feet centre will take care of its BPO operations. HSBC has invested $10- 15 million for the processing centre. On the branch expansion, Munter said the bank had got three licences this year, of which two branches, in Raipur and Patna, are already set up, while it is planning to set up a branch in Lucknow.

Meanwhile on the NBFC licence, he said it had not yet received permission from the regulator and once it is received they would relocate the consumer finance business of the bank to NBF.

Edwina Baniqued