HSBC says to increase risk appetite in retail bank

LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings plans to take more lending risks in retail banking and wealth management to accelerate its revenue growth, the head of the business said on Friday.

"We are exploring the potential to take more credit risk as we head into next year," John Flint, head of retail banking and wealth management (RBWM), told analysts via a webcast.

Flint said losses from bad loans are under control in most of the bank's markets, but said the increased risk appetite could be restricted by regulatory changes in some markets.

He said there had been no change to HSBC's targets to add $3 billion in extra wealth management revenues and deliver a return on risk weighted assets of 5-5.5 percent by 2016, compared with 4.9 percent in the first nine months of this year.

(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Laura Noonan)