(adds comments from Bank of Communications)
BEIJING, June 11 (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings, Europe's biggest bank, has no timetable for increasing its stake in China's Bank of Communications, a senior HSBC executive said on Friday.
HSBC owns about 19 percent of China's fifth-biggest lender and has previously said it would be interested in raising that to the 20 percent ceiling imposed by the Chinese government on foreign stakes in domestic banks.
Vincent Cheng, HSBC executive director and chairman for Asia-Pacific, also told reporters the UK-based bank had no plans to reduce its stake in BoCom. He was speaking on the sidelines of a financial forum in Beijing.
Goldman Sachs last week sold about 20 percent of its stake in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the latest in a series of Western banks, including Bank of America and Royal Bank of Scotland, to cut their Chinese bank stakes in order to raise capital.
BoCom, for its part, is eyeing expansion of its branch network overseas, Peng Chun, deputy head of the bank told reporters.
Peng said BoCom, which has branches in Singapore, New York and Tokyo, was looking at San Francisco, Sydney and Ho Chi Minh City.
He added that the strengthening Chinese economy meant borrowers would have little trouble repaying debt this year, limiting any potential rise in non-performing loans.
Economists have warned that the surge in credit extended by Chinese banks in the early months of this year could pose big risks to the health of their balance sheets.
"Maintaining economic growth equals protecting banks," Peng told the forum.
(Reporting by Aileen Wang, Zhou Xin and Simon Rabinovitch; Editing by Chris Lewis)