HSBC talks on Pakistan and Korea sales

HSBC, Europe's largest bank, is in talks to sell its Korean and Pakistan businesses as part of chief executive Stuart Gulliver's plans to cut costs and exit non-core areas.

The Korean business, which has 11 branches involved in retail banking and wealth management, is likely to be sold to the Korea Development Bank. With assets of £16.5bn, a Korean disposal would be reasonably large.

In Pakistan, the bank said it is "in discussions with a number of interested parties". This operation is relatively small with assets of about £350m.

Mr Gulliver has so far sold off 23 businesses as part of his scheme to concentrate only on areas where HSBC has significant scale and good growth prospects.