Mumbai: Former Infosys chairman N R Narayana Murthy, chief mentor of Infosys Technologies, will join the board of banking conglomerate HSBC Holdings Plc in May, the bank said in a regulatory filing in London.

"Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy (61) has been appointed a director of HSBC Holdings plc with effect from May 1, 2008. He will be an independent non-executive director" HSBC said in its filing.

Narayana Murthy will draw an annual renumeration of £65,000 (about Rs52 lakh) and the appointment will be for an initial three-year term, expiring at end-2011, it said.

Murthy would not have a service contract with HSBC Holdings plc and would be paid a director's fee as authorised by shareholders at the 2006 annual general meeting, it said.

HSBC Holdings plc, Europe's biggest bank by market capitalisation, have over 125 million customers worldwide and around 10,000 offices in 83 countries across Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa.

The bank is listed on the London, Hong Kong, New York, Paris and Bermuda stock exchanges.

HSBC also reported a 17 per cent rise in second-half profit as emerging-markets lending overcame subprime losses in the US.

Net income increased to $8.24 billion, or 69 cents a share, from $7.1 billion, or 62 cents, a year earlier.

HSBC wrote down $2.1 billion of asset-backed securities, leveraged loans and holdings guaranteed by bond insurers in 2007 and raised its dividend by 11 per cent to 90 cents.

HSBC, which saw its earnings grow in emerging markets like Hong Kong, China and India, is now less dependent on the US market.