HSBC sells insurance, seeks additional Vietnam insurer

Thursday, May 15, 2008
HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank by market value, plans to start selling life insurance next month through a joint venture in India.

The venture, owned with Canara Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce, is licensed to sell eight life-insurance and savings products and is “going very well,” Clive Bannister, HSBC’s London-based head of insurance, said.

The bank, which bought a 10% stake in Viet Nam’s Bao Viet Insurance & Finance Group in September for US$255 million, will use its option to buy an additional 8% in the biggest state-owned insurer by June 2009, he said.

HSBC has a target of gaining 20% of earnings from insurance “over time,” said Bannister.

The division contributed pretax profit of $3.1 billion or 13% of earnings last year, compared with 10 (Bloomberg)