With its second-largest employee base in India, HSBC India believes that the country is naturally significant for the group. Surendra Rosha, CEO, HSBC India, tells Bhavik Nair that India needs global capital and the bank sees itself playing a crucial role in Indian companies’ equity and debt issues overseas. Excerpts:

India is one of the biggest contributors to HSBC following Hong Kong and China. Do you think there is a possibility that the country’s position could move up the ladder?
Our fundamental strategy has been to be amongst the top five contributors to the group. I am less concerned about where we are in that sequence, as much as ensuring that we are growing the business, gaining market share and focussing on ensuring that the customer base is satisfied with our services. We have our second largest employee base in India, and when 38,000 employees of the bank work in the country, it naturally becomes important. Our global customers—both corporates and institutions—have an Indian strategy or an India leg to their business. And that’s where we as a business become relevant to our global relationship bankers in various geographies.

How big are you going on digital, especially blockchain?
Digital is the core of everything that we want to do within the bank. We were the first international bank to join UPI and launch it in November 2016. Since then we have seen a lot of success in the payments space. We have introduced other digital products in the areas of foreign exchange, trade, capital markets that have allowed us to connect better and more efficiently with our customers. Customers are increasingly asking us and other institutions to connect with them digitally. We have to adapt to that demand. When it comes to trade, we have done a couple of corporate-to-corporate trade transactions using distributed ledger technology. This allows us to process the trade digitally and reduce the paperwork that is involved and through this process reduce the possibilities of error. We think that the real commercialisation will start in 2020 and it will take a few years to become a scale solution.

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What is your view on cryptocurrencies?
We are observing the developments in the context of digital currencies and the regulatory approach to that and how that is developing in the country. We don’t use cryptocurrencies as of today, or any version of that in our payments. We don’t bank these exchanges. We don’t settle any transactions for our customers. We are not involved in that ecosystem but we are observing it. There will be aspects of this technology which regulators will get comfortable with, over time, and look to use it. Our fundamental approach for any of our customers using a mechanism for payment is that it should be in line with regulations as it would be in the traditional monetary system. As regulations develop, we will look at it.

These are times when we are seeing sophisticated cyber attacks on banks. How prepared are you on the cyber security side?
We are constantly testing our systems and capabilities against attacks. Cyber risk exists just like other risks. We are observing what is happening to other institutions and learning from that as well. We are making sure that our level of protection keeps increasing with every iteration. You have to keep improving yourself and that is why constant checks and tests of our systems and capabilities become important.

On which segments of banking do you think HSBC needs to focus more?
We have firmly embedded the growth agenda in our businesses over the last 18 months. The bank is in growth mode across a number of businesses. We have three business lines—global banking and markets, commercial banking, and retail banking and wealth management. Across all these, we are growing. Transaction banking— that involves custody, cash management, trade, foreign exchange— is an area where HSBC adds value to customers and we are focussed on developing and growing that. We have also started to focus actively on east Asia, ASEAN and the Middle East because we are seeing investor interest as well as trade growing in these regions rapidly. We are also focussing on sustainable finance. Within this context, we have a focus on renewables and real estate. From the Indian perspective, we are focussed on looking at how to finance those opportunities not only from our balance sheet but also from the investor base that we have overseas.

What do you think is the retail customer’s mindset when it comes to having a relationship with a foreign bank like yours?
I would say that we have a very focussed approach. Clearly, we don’t see ourselves competing with the so-called national banks. We would keenly look at customers with international or domestic needs, which we can service. One area that we are growing in and have grown in the last year is credit cards. We are quite focussed on growing that. The non-resident Indian population that banks in India is an area that we can focus on and grow because they bank with us in other parts of the world. The fundamental principle that we should think about in the context of HSBC is, “Can we add value to our customers?”

Your biggest cash generating business is the global banking and markets business. What are your plans for this segment?
Within global banking and markets, there are areas such as cash management, foreign exchange, securities services businesses, all of which we believe will continue to grow and we will continue to invest in. India needs global capital and we see ourselves playing a role in Indian companies’ equity and debt issues overseas. We will continue to invest in that, both in terms of people and technology. A large proportion of our global banking and markets relationship have an Indian strategy. We will continue to bank them and bank them better than in the past.

What are your views on the upcoming general elections? As the head of a global bank in India, is there something that keeps you awake at night?
Elections happen in India every five years and we are fundamentally very sanguine about that process. What we are really focussed on is the underlying growth that the country offers. In the next 10-15 years, this growth will continue to be there. We are extremely positive on the economy.