HSBC to stay in Asia marts

MANILA, Philippines - British banking ginast Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) said that the global bank’s strategy in Asia was strong, balanced and diversified geographies and businesses stressing that they are not exiting any markets in Asia, including the Philippines.”

“The six priority and two strategic markets that were mentioned are where we prioritize our investment but that does not mean that we exclude other markets,” Johanna Garcia, HSBC Philippines senior vice president for communications, pointed out in reactions to a Financial Times article.

“We continue to review all our businesses to improve the way we allocate capital to markets and businesses with clear growth potential as stated by HSBC chief executive officer Stuart Gulliver during Strategy Day last May 2011. We also continue to invest and grow in Asia as evidenced by our strong financial performance in 2011,” Garcia added.

 She said that what was written was purely speculative.

In the publication’s March 12 issue, the article said that HSBC was scaling down on its Asian operations “as it considers the sale or closure of seven Asian retail businesses from Pakistan to New Zealand.”

It quoted HSBC chief executive for Asia Peter Wong as saying that the bank decided to focus on six core Asian markets outside of Hong Kong, which are those producing the fastest profits growth, and two strategic markets that will be important for the future.

The six core Asian markets are Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, while the strategic markets are Taiwan, which he said was the third leg of the Greater China story, and Vietnam, which was very fast growing.

Also mentioned in the article were Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Macau, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.