HSBC Holdings PLC has given up on buying a South Korean bank because it is too expensive, and now plans to greatly expand its own branch network in the Asian nation, an HSBC executive said.
“We are working out a business plan pretty rapidly, and I would expect to see a significant expansion in the second half of the year,” Paul Thurston, general manager for HSBC’s personal financial services business in the Asia-Pacific region, said in an interview.
Thurston said London-based HSBC would increase its branches in South Korea — still a small part of the global bank’s operations. “We are going to significantly increase the number of staff that we put on,” he added.
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