Is IB SA recruitment completely separate for HK/SG for many banks?

Hi monkeys, I'm an applicant to Hong Kong and Singapore IBD. For many banks, they take Hong Kong and Singapore office IB separately while others have a consolidated app. For the former, do banks process applications and conduct interviews completely separately? In an interview with a bank that had one app for both, I didn't know how to answer properly when the interviewer asked me which office I preferred. If you equivocate, you will be seen as an undetermined person and if you choose one, you're putting yourself at risk by either not saying the city the interviewer works in or contradicting yourself later on by going with the cities different interviewers work in. It'd be appreciated if someone could provide me with some insights.