New Delhi, July 16 -- Foreign lender HSBC is offering non-resident Indians (NRIs) leverage, or the use of borrowed funds to enhance returns, of up to 19 times their own capital to create foreign currency non-resident bank or FCNR(B) deposits through its GIFT City branch.

This is said to be the largest such leverage being offered by banks since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the incentive scheme in June to boost dollar deposits, according to a person aware of the development and a term sheet seen by Mint. Most other banks are offering a leverage of up to nine times.

The British bank's enthusiasm points to how some lenders are trying to make the most of this scheme by mobilising low-cost foreign currency deposits, and using the...