HSBC banks on rising aspirations as it prepares to open branches in 20 more cities

HSBC India intends to maintain its image of premium banking service provider with a focus on high net worth individuals as it gets ready to open branches in 20 more cities, from Amritsar to Thiruvananthapuram.

HSBC believes rising aspirations, global mobility and affluence will help generate interest and business at the new locations, for which it received licences from the Reserve Bank of India earlier this year.  Four branches are likely to open by December and four more by June 2026. “The bank has to do what it is able to do best… to serve companies and individuals who are globally minded,” head-International Wealth and Premier Banking of HSBC India, Sandeep Batra, said.

All the facilities will get equal focus, he asserted on tweaks likely in the approach as HSBC expands beyond the network of 26 branches across 14 cities. Of these existing branches Mumbai hosts nine, Delhi three, Bengaluru and Kolkata two each and Noida, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kochi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Gurugram, Coimbatore and Chandigarh one each.    

Besides in Amritsar and Thiruvananthapuram, HSBC has got licences to open branches in Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Dehradun, Faridabad, Indore, Jalandhar, Kanpur, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Mysuru, Nagpur, Nashik, Navi Mumbai, Patna, Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara and Visakhapatnam. The emphasis will be on service. “So if you walk into this branch or my branch in Delhi or soon go to my new branch in Lucknow, you will get the same service, same global access. Even coffee will be the same…,” said Mr. Batra, who was in Hyderabad for opening of a 5,600 sq ft HSBC branch in Hitech City, which has been relocated from Raj Bhavan Road.

GCC in Hyderabad 

HSBC’s headcount is 45,000 in India, which includes employees at the global capability centre (GCC) that opened in Hyderabad last year, a number set to increase as the bank expands footprint. The GCC is located in the same building where HSBC has relocated the branch, and along with it opened a corporate office on an additional 12,000 sq.ft. “Hyderabad is very important for us,” he said.