The banking group, which has shed some operations to focus on markets it sees as having sufficient scale, has appointed a Guangdong chief executive.

HSBC has appointed Montgomery Ho as its Guangdong chief executive, as part of a move, the bank says, to accelerate growth in this province. A management team in Guangdong is also being hired.

Since joining HSBC in 1983, Ho has held a number of positions in trade finance, strategy and planning and corporate banking. In October 2010, Ho became managing director and head of commercial banking for China. He was appointed deputy chief executive and executive director of the board of HSBC China in January last year. He will continue in his executive director position, while adding the role of senior executive vice president, upon his new appointment as Guangdong CEO.

The move fits with HSBC's aim of developing "businesses at scale" - a situation that has also seen it close a number of operations in jurisdictions where it hasn't reached sufficient profitable scale. A few days ago, for example, the bank said it was shutting its Indian private bank. In late October, it sold its Bermuda-based business to Butterfield; HSBC has also moved out of markets in Brazil and Turkey to focus more on regions such as Asia.

"It is estimated that the PRD [Pearl River Delta] and Hong Kong banking industries in aggregate will become the largest banking revenue pool globally by 2025, worth $185 billion. The bank’s medium-term goal is to generate $1 billion of pre-tax profit from the region, which is 10 times today's amount," it said.

“Our expansion plans in the PRD are well supported by our infrastructure in Hong Kong and the Special Administrative Region’s close trade, investment and cultural links with Guangdong,” said HSBC’s Greater China chief executive, Helen Wong.

Delivering HSBC’s growth strategy in the PRD means building a full scale, digitally-driven retail banking and wealth management business in the region. This will be led by credit cards and home lending and encompass core retail, mortgage, insurance manufacturing and asset management, the bank said.

HSBC’s China chief executive, David Liao, added: “The continued opening-up of China’s markets has boosted trade and capital flows between the mainland and overseas markets, offering huge growth potential for international banks. Appointing a chief executive who will drive business growth in Guangdong will enable HSBC to capitalise on the opportunities brought about by reforms in the local market."

The bank said Guangdong’s economy is comparable in size with those of Indonesia and Mexico. It made up 10.65 per cent of China’s overall GDP in 2014, but is growing faster than China as a whole, with GDP expansion of 7.8 per cent in 2014.