If there's one story where risks are limited and upside's high, it is India: HSBC India CEO Hitendra Dave
India is at the top of the chart for global investors, said HSBC India CEO Hitendra Dave. The absence of global banks in Indian retail lending and the soaring wealth effect of the Indian middle class have provided a springboard for HSBC India to become the vital lever of growth for the British bank, Dave said in an interview with Bhaskar Dutta and MC Govardhana Rangan. Edited excerpts:
Among global banks, with Citi exiting retail, you are alone in the competitive retail space. What is it that you are seeing that others don't?
My sense is that there is place for only one international bank to have the ambitions and market-share aspirations of a local bank while continuing to operate as an international bank — be it governance, structure, product, technology, and servicing. What distinguishes us is just the totality of all these things — the aspirations of a local, private bank but operations like an international bank. It is very important to have the emotional connection of a domestic bank. I can't judge myself, but I think we are that international bank. When you talk to large customers, if you ask them which is that one international bank which is ticking these boxes? I hope most people will say HSBC.
After the global financial crisis, few MNC banks including HSBC, chose to remain in emerging markets retail. What has changed for you now?
What has changed over the last four to five years is the sheer wealth effect in India. We individually feel it, we read about it — how the number of luxury cars is going through
