HSBC USA Inc., the U.S. banking unit of HSBC Holdings PLC, plans to "aggressively" add to its one-branch New Jersey operation to capture "spillover" business from New York, an executive said Tuesday.
"We essentially bought a branch as a stepping-stone to expanding our New Jersey network more aggressively," said Bobby N. Mehta, the chief executive officer of HSBC North America Holdings, during a presentation sponsored by Lehman Brothers in New York. He did not quantify or provide a time frame.
HSBC is "seeking to expand our middle-market franchise both in the New York area and outside our footprint - in L.A., San Francisco, Boston, Miami," he said.
He said the U.S. banking unit, which has $144 billion of assets, is focused on organic growth and is midway through a transformation that involves "taking the technology and mindset of the finance company and introducing it into the bank - embedding analytics, embedding lead management, and embedding sales culture within the U.S. bank."
"Over time," Mr. Mehta said, "we will do opportunistic acquisitions, but really our fundamental agenda today is growth organically, because we believe we have significant opportunities to do that."
