预计韩国金融监管机构不会在4月份的最后期限之前及时批准汇丰(HSBC)以63亿美元收购韩国外换银行(KEB)的交易，这使得人们对汇丰在这个亚洲第三大银行业市场的扩张计划产生了质疑。

South Korea’s financial regulators are not expected to approve HSBC’s $6.3bn acquisition of Korea Exchange Bank in time for an April deadline, raising doubts about the group’s plans to expand in Asia’s third-largest banking market.

如果未能获得监管机构批准，汇丰提出从美国私人股本集团孤星(Lone Star)手中购入韩国外换银行51%股权的要约将于4月30日失效。但韩国金融监督委员会(Financial Supervisory
Commission)官员表示，他们预计在此期限前不会做出任何决定。“（我们）正在考虑这一申请，但我们不太可能在最后期限之前做出任何决定，”韩国金融监督委员会银行司的一位高级官员表示。

HSBC’s offer to buy a 51 per cent stake in KEB from Lone Star, the US private equity group, will expire on April 30 if it has not been approved by regulators. But officials at South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Commission said they did not expect any decision to be made by then. “[We are] looking at the application, but we are not likely to make any decision by the deadline,” a senior FSC official in the banking division said.

在美国消费贷款业务蒙受重大损失后，投资者正在向汇丰施压，要求其将重点放在新兴市场。汇丰定于今日发布2007年业绩。

HSBC, which is due to report results for 2007 today, is under pressure from investors to focus on emerging markets after suffering heavy losses in its consumer lending operations in the US.