LONDON, Oct 30 — British banking giant HSBC on Monday reported a surge in pre-tax earnings for the third quarter of 2023, reflecting a positive impact of a higher interest rate environment and a rise in revenue, reported dpa news.
“We also intend to initiate a further share buy-back of up to US$3 billion, which we expect to commence shortly and complete by our 2023 full-year results announcement on 21 February 2024,” HSBC said.
For the three-month period to September 30, the company posted a pre-tax income of US$7.714 billion, sharply higher than US$3.229 billion, recorded for the third quarter of previous year.
The earnings were supported by US$2.3 billion impairment in third quarter of 2022 related to the planned sale of retail banking operations in France, of which US$2.1 billion was reversed in the first quarter of 2023 as the completion of the transaction became less certain.
The bank now expects to reclassify these operations held for sale in the fourth quarter of 2023, at which point the impairment would be reinstated. After tax, profit stood at US$6.266 billion or US$0.29 per share as against last year’s US$2.657 billion or US$0.10 per share.
Operating income was at US$7.122 billion, compared with US$2.647 billion a year ago. Net operating profit stood at US$15.090 billion, versus US$10.440 billion in 2022.
Net interest income improved to US$9.248 billion from previous year’s US$8.006 billion. Net fee income was US$3.003 billion, up from previous year’s US$2.852 billion.
Non-interest income increased by US$3.4 billion or 97 per cent to US$6.9 billion, due to the non-recurrence of the impairment related to the sale of the retail banking operations in France.
Revenue increased by US$4.7 billion or 40 per cent to US$16.2 billion, as the higher interest rate environment supported growth in net interest income in all the company’s global businesses and increased non-interest income.
The company will pay a third interim dividend of $0.10 per share on December 21, to shareholders of record as of November 10.
Looking ahead, for full year 2023, the lender continues to expect net interest income of over US$35 billion.
— Bernama-dpa
