I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at HSBC in Feb 2011
Interview
The interview process was pretty straight-forward. There were 3 interviews 1) Functional Manager (with Line Manager), 2)Line Management head-onshore, 3)HR.
I feel the 1st interview could have been more interesting with better questions/intelligent topics, it seemed that the interviewer wasn't as prepared or informed. Hardly anything analytical/technical/functional. I ended up asking more questions after.
2nd Interview was more of a cursory interview to ensure that I was OK to the onshore's satisfaction. Again, very little technical/psychological and more cursory.
The HR round was more interesting with some borderline stress-testing. However, the company either didn't have the resources or wasn't into any psychometric or qualitative testing which could be an improvement opportunity.