"We are waiting for HSBC to win the license very soon, I myself am supporting that," Abdulmagid El-Mansuri, chairman of the Industry Ministry's foreign investment advisory committee, told a Libya trade and investment forum.
Libya has set the end of July as the deadline for awarding two new joint-venture banking licenses for which foreigners can bid for the first time, a central bank official said last week.
The six banks short-listed are HSBC, Standard Chartered, UniCredit, Mashreq Bank, National Bank of Dubai and Qatar Islamic Bank.
"The result will be decided by the end of the month. Libyans would like to see HSBC win the license, they have large experience," Mansuri told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.
HSBC last month sold its 48.9 percent share in British Arab Commercial Bank to Libyan Foreign Bank for 56.7 million pounds ($86.2 million).
The licenses will let the winning foreign bidders own 49 percent of the new banks, with Libyan partners holding the rest.
All Libya's banks were state-owned for decades but in the past few years the sector has started to open up as part of tentative steps by the government to reform the economy.
Libya has sold minority stakes in three existing banks to foreign investors keen to gain access to Libya's immense wealth from oil exports.
Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo said in April it had bought a 40 percent stake in Aman Bank.
BNP Paribas acquired a stake in Sahara bank in 2007, and a year later Jordan-based Arab Bank took a share in Libya's Al-Wahda bank.
