LONDON (Bloomberg) ? HSBC Bank Plc is offering to exchange notes worth about $830 million issued by Marks & Spencer Financial Services Plc, a unit the lender bought from the UK?s largest clothing retailer.

HSBC this week completed the purchase of Marks & Spencer Group Plc?s consumer banking unit for 762 million pounds ($1.4 billion), making it the number two credit card issuer after Barclays Plc in the UK, Europe?s biggest consumer finance market.

The new notes will benefit from HSBC Bank?s higher credit rating, HSBC said in a statement on the Regulatory News Service. HSBC?s senior debt is rated AA by Fitch Ratings and Aa2 by Moody?s Investors Service, the third-highest investment grades, and AA-, a level lower, by Standard & Poor?s. Marks & Spencer Financial Services notes are rated Baa2 by Moody?s and BBB by S&P, six and five levels lower respectively, the statement said.

HSBC wants to exchange the notes ?to bring a bit of clarity to noteholders to ensure there are no complications,? from the takeover, said Richard Lindsay, a spokesman for HSBC in London.

?We hope noteholders will be attracted to higher ratings and our record in the debt markets.?

Twenty-one notes are affected by the offer, the statement said, including six securities totalling 252.5 million euros ($326 million) and nine totalling ?184 million. The other notes are denominated in US dollars, Japanese yen and Hong Kong dollars.

The new notes will be issued by HSBC Bank and will carry the same nominal amount, coupon and maturity as the original security and a date for a meeting of noteholders probably will be announced before the end of the month, the statement said.