When Moumita Shome landed in Dubai from Australia last month, the calls from bankers started almost immediately. HSBC is aggressively courting the Indian diaspora with a striking offer: up to 19x leverage on Foreign Currency Non-Resident (B) deposits, known as FCNR(B).

The product allows non-resident Indians to pledge their dollar-denominated FCNR(B) deposits as collateral for rupee loans in India, effectively multiplying their investment capacity. Bankers are pitching this as a way to capture the interest-rate differential between USD and INR while keeping principal in dollars.

The push reflects intense competition among global banks for NRI wealth flows. With India's relatively high interest rates and a stable currency outlook, FCNR(B) deposits have surged, crossing $10 billion in fresh inflows last quarter. HSBC's leverage offer aims to lock in these deposits while giving clients liquidity without breaking their term deposits.

Regulators at the Reserve Bank of India permit such lending up to prescribed loan-to-value ratios, but industry watchers caution about currency risk if the rupee depreciates sharply.