A senior official of the HSBC Holdings PLC's Bangladesh operations said on Tuesday that the bank was not exiting any markets in Asia, denying a report from the Financial Times that it was planning to sell or close retail operations in Bangladesh and several other weaker Asian countries. 

The bank has now decided to focus on six core Asian countries outside of Hong Kong; the London-based newspaper quoted Peter Wong, chief executive of HSBC in Asia, as saying. Noman Anwar, head of marketing and communications of HSBC Bangladesh, said in a statement: "Bangladesh continues to be important for HSBC and is part of the new trade flows across Asia."

"Our objective is to build a sustainable business in Bangladesh," The markets to see the HSBC scale back are Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Macau, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, the FT said in a report on Monday.

The bank has also been widely reported to be in discussions to sell its Korean business, which has 14 branches.
The key Asian markets where HSBC is planning to reinforce its strength are Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, while the strategic markets are Taiwan, which Wong said was the third leg of the Greater China story, and Vietnam, which was very fast growing.

The report said the bank has already sold or shut down its retail operations in Japan and Thailand and sold its Asian insurance businesses as part of a broader strategic overhaul under chief executive Stuart Gulliver.

HSBC had missed analysts' expectations with a near $22 billion profit last year, which marked the biggest profit among western banks thanks to its strength in Asia and other emerging markets.

But Anwar said, "We continue to invest and grow in Asia as evidenced by our strong financial performance for 2011."
Regarding the news of Financial Times on HSBC's Asian operations, he said, "The priority and strategic markets are where we prioritise our investment but that doesn't mean that we exclude other markets."

HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, on Feb 27 reported that 2011 profits of $21.9 billion, up 15 percent on the year but just below the average forecast of $22.2 billion from 13 analysts polled by Reuters. The profit included $3.9 billion of gains on the value of its own debt, Reuters has said.

Profits at its investment bank were down 24 percent on 2010 at $7 billion, hurt as the euro zone debt crisis slowed capital markets activity in the second half of last year, it added.

CEO Gulliver is reshaping HSBC to cut annual costs by $3.5 billion, lift profitability and sharpen its focus on Asia, and said he will step up the execution of his plan this year, according to Reuters.

The Independent/Bangladesh/ 14th March 2012