Korea to become global renminbi hub: HSBC Korea chief

The head of HSBC's Korean unit on Wednesday highlighted the country's prospect as a renminbi hub as the British banking giant focuses on its corporate finance business after shutting down its retail units here.

"We believe that given its geographical proximity to China and the importance of its economic and trade links with China, Korea can become one of the most successful renminbi centers in Asia and globally," HSBC Korea President Martin Tricaud told reporters in a news conference.

Earlier this year, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, agreed to launch a won-yuan direct trading market, a move aimed at reducing their heavy dependence on the U.S. dollar.

The portion of Chinese yuan deposits in Korea among foreign currency deposits have also been trending higher. South Korea's central bank data showed that yuan-denominated deposits hit a record $19.97 billion in August, accounting for nearly 30 percent of all foreign currency deposits.

The HSBC Korea chief stressed the importance of the local market, shrugging off views that Korea is becoming a smaller part of the banking group's business portfolio.

"We made the decision to wind down to exit the retail banking sector because after several years, we reached the conclusion that we will not be able to compete in a profitable manner in the retail banking space," said Tricaud.

HSBC was among the foreign financial firms that have scaled down their retail business here as they failed to reap profit amid toughening competition.

Tricaud said the local unit aims to continue to develop its business here.

"Korea is a very important country for HSBC, and it will be more and more as Korea becomes the regional hub for renminbi," he said. (Yonhap)