HSBC Group chief executive Stuart Gulliver said the bank has reported PBT for the quarter was $0.6bn, down compared to the first quarter of 2011, but underlying PBT increased by $1.4bn, boosted by higher revenues in Global Banking and Markets and Commercial Banking.
The bank’s underlying cost efficiency ratio improved from 58.7% in 1Q11 to 55.5% in 1Q12, Gulliver added.
The UK-based lender registered a total operating income of $20.44bn during the first quarter of current fiscal, which stood flat compared to the same quarter earlier year.
Net operating income before loan impairment charges and other credit provisions (‘revenue’) was $16.2bn, down $0.8bn for the latest quarter period of current fiscal, compared to a net income of $17bn during the year ago quarter.
For the three month ended on 31 March 2012, the bank’s profit attributable to ordinary shareholders stood at$2.4bn, down by $1.6bn from $4.15bn during the corresponding quarter previous year, mainly backed by accounting charges on the value of the bank’s debt.
The reported cost efficiency ratio stood at 63.9% for the current quarter of 2012, versus 60.9% in during the three months ended on 31 March 2011.
The bank said that its Asia Pacific region operation’s profit before tax grew to $2.02bn, while the same rose by 21% in Hong Kong and 11% in Latin America.
Commenting about the quarterly performance of the bank and its future outlook Gulliver said that markets remain volatile with high levels of debt and regulatory and political uncertainty in developed economies, contrasting with an encouraging outlook in faster-growing markets. Our performance in April has been satisfactory, and we remain confident that we will deliver on executing our strategy.
"We also continued to reduce costs, recording USD 0.3 billion of sustainable cost savings in 1Q12, which takes the total annualised savings achieved to USD 2 billion," Gulliver added.
