HSBC's profit before tax (PBT) from India rose marginally to $1.11 billion in 2021. The bank's PBT had stood at $1.024 billion in 2020.
The country is the fourth biggest profit centre for the UK-headquartered lender, after Hong Kong, the UK and Mainland China, according to an official statement.
Courtesy back-office operations, India retains the top ranking in terms of employees but the number of people employed declined by 1,000 to 38,000. The total number of employees had declined by 1,000 in 2020 as well.
Among its business lines, the commercial banking segment showed one of the fastest growth at nearly 42 percent to deliver a profit before tax (PBT) of $265 million as against $187 million in the year-ago period.
The profits from the wealth and personal banking vertical increased to $20 million in 2021 from $16 million, while the same for global banking and markets were maintained at $593 million.
The 'corporate centre' function saw an increase in the overall profit contribution to $232 million as against $228 million, according to the statement.
In 2021, equity capital markets (ECM) team completed 10 transactions cumulatively aggregating $4.8 billion across IPOs (initial public offerings) and other follow-on issuances, it said.
It also has established a $125-million credit programme for technology-led startups in the country, the statement said.
The overall customer accounts in India increased to 24,507 as against 20,199 in the year-ago period, and the statement said there was a significant growth on this side despite the ''challenging economic environment''.
Its wholesale lending practice of loans and advances to customers at amortised cost saw an increase to $12.224 billion as against $10.298 billion in the year-ago period. As of 2021-end, it had assets of $1.786 billion from real estate as against $1.951 billion, and $4 billion from the non-bank lenders as against $3 billion.
In India, the ban contributed an additional $10 million towards COVID-19 relief efforts in the last year, which witnessed the second wave of infections playing havoc across the country.
(With PTI inputs)
