Private banking business has been little affected by the ongoing credit crisis, according to HSBC's chief executive officer for Group Private Banking, Chris Meares. "The stock portfolios of our clients have suffered no major losses so far, although liquidity has diminished in the money markets significantly," Mr Meares told Swiss newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft. "We were also barely affected by the correction in the hedge fund area." Mr Meares said HSBC remained cautious in respect of the development on the financial markets in the short run. "You could expect more negative news in the near term," he said. "But we have a good feeling on the longer run. Growth of the global economy is robust, unemployment is low and the valuations of stocks are low by historical comparisons," Mr Meares said. Mr Meares, who was appointed as HSBC's global private banking head last November, also said that HSBC had not been actively pursuing acquisitions recently due to the high prices of possible targets. "Prices are too high," he said. "On the other hand we had no need for acquisitions in recent years. Our earlier acquisitions helped us to get the global coverage of the private-banking market we wanted."