HSBC chief Aman Mehta game for board slots

Aman Mehta, the Hong Kong-based chief executive officer of HSBC, is game for non-executive board level positions in companies, having good corporate governance track record, back home in India once he superannuates in December.

After completing his 35-year stint with HSBC, Mehta plans to relocate to Delhi. "I will look around...I will explore opportunities in the education field and with non-government organisations. I will also look at corporate board level positions in a non-executive capacity with non-finance companies," he said in a telecon.

Mehta averred that HSBC's outlook on the Indian market was positive. "This is underscored by the fact that HSBC pumped in $150 million into its Indian operations in 2002-03 to grow its business."

Further the bank has presence covering all lines of banking business in India. On the issue of acquisitions, the CEO said that HSBC was always a "prospective acquirer".

It is open to the idea of acquisitions as and when the opportunity arises. The group, worldwide, has been growing both organically as well as inorganically.

In India, over the last couple of years, HSBC has taken over the retail portfolios of Deutsche Bank, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi and BNP Paribas.

Mehta emphasised that the commitment of HSBC to India is further outlined by the fact that it outsources its global data processing/call centre requirements from Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Further it also has a software development centre in Pune. These three units put together employ close to 4,000 people.

The bank, he pointed out, was comfortable with the corporate agency route for distributing insurance products in Asia.