HSBC Holdings Plc, the world's second-largest bank by market value, said it plans to move 6,000 jobs to support centers in India, China and Malaysia by the end of 2004 as it shifts work to lower-cost sites in Asia.

At the end of 2003, the lender employed 8,000 people at such centers. HSBC Holdings chief executive officer Stephen Green said he expects the process to 'continue.'

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''It's our duty towards our shareholders and frankly also to the markets in which we operate to be making use of our resources in the most optimal way and one of the things we do is to create jobs in environments where there's a shortage of them,'' said Green at a press conference in Hong Kong.

HSBC said on Monday that its 2003 profit rose 41 per cent to $8.77 billion, buoyed by its purchase of Household International Inc. Last year, and other financial institutions are moving jobs to Asia, where labour is cheaper, to save on costs.

Last year, the British lender said it plans to cut 4,000 jobs in the United Kingdom and move the positions to Asia.

It opened its first processing center in Guangzhou, China, in 1996 and started moving back-office employees to India in 2000.