RPT-INTERVIEW-HSBC launches India insurance JV, eyes Asia growth

(Repeats story issued late on Monday)

* Sees strong growth in markets such as China and India

* May take less than 7 years for India JV to be profitable

By Sumeet Chatterjee

BANGALORE, June 16 (Reuters) - HSBC (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile, Research) (0005.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) sees great potential for its insurance products in the fast-growing economies of China and India as part of a global push to boost its insurance business, senior officials said on Monday.

Europe's biggest bank on Monday launched its life insurance joint venture in India, a market where it will face stiff competition from state-run Life Insurance Corp and a host of ventures of the world's top insurance companies including AIG (AIG.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Allianz (ALVG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and Aviva (AV.L: Quote, Profile, Research).

China and India are key markets for HSBC's insurance business, David Fried, chairman and chief executive of HSBC Insurance (Asia-Pacific), told Reuters.

"We will continue to invest and develop our businesses in those countries because these are the two most populated countries in the world and two of the most under-developed insurance markets in the world," he said.

HSBC is bulking up its insurance business, which accounted for 13 percent of the group's total profit in 2007. The bank wants the contribution by its insurance businesses to rise to 20 percent in roughly five years. Clive Bannister, head of HSBC's insurance business, expected the Indian joint venture, which has been capitalised at about $81 million, would become profitable in less than seven years, the time it usually takes a life insurance firm to break even. He said staff levels of the joint venture, in which HSBC holds 26 percent, the maximum stake a foreign firm can hold in an Indian insurance company, would be raised to 1,000 in a year from about 440 now.