NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - HSBC ( HSBC ) is planning to

recruit about 50 more bankers in its U.S. commercial bank to

lend to startup companies, mainly in the technology and

healthcare sectors, according to a senior executive.

HSBC ( HSBC ) hired about 40 people from Silicon Valley Bank after

the latter lender failed a year ago. The innovation banking

business at HSBC ( HSBC ) now stands at about 60 employees and is focused

on serving early- and mid-stage companies.

"There's this void in the market and we're jumping into it,"

Wyatt Crowell, head of commercial banking at HSBC ( HSBC ), told Reuters

in an interview. "It's gone way better than I thought it was

going to go, both in terms of the volume of deals and our win

rate on the deals."