HSBC profits jumps in Q3 on booming Asia

Banking giant HSBC has reported pre-tax quarterly profits of $4.6bn (£3.5bn) for the three months to the end of September. The result marks a huge 448% increase from $843m posted in the same period a year ago. With one-off costs and currency impacts stripped out, HSBC posted a $3.8bn leap in pre-tax profits to $4.6bn for the third quarter, as it made a one-off loss on the sale of a business in Brazil last year.

HSBC is in the process of handing over to new management, with new chairman Mark Tucker starting this month, while HSBC lifer John Flint will take over as chief executive in February. 

Gulliver said the bank had “maintained good momentum in the third quarter,” with higher revenue across its main global businesses. “Our pivot to Asia is driving higher returns and lending growth, particularly in Hong Kong,” he added.

After some strong profitable years under Gulliver, HSBC earnings plunged in 2016 on huge write downs and restructuring charges. Profits rebounded in the first half of this year.
The bank had in 2015 set out a plan to axe 50,000 jobs and exit non-core markets, as it also navigated a series of damaging probes into HSBC operations.

The bank was fined $1.92 billion by US prosecutors in 2012 to settle allegations that it failed to enforce anti-money laundering rules exposing it to exploitation by drug cartels and terrorist organizations.
In 2015, HSBC was forced to apologize for “unacceptable” failings at its Swiss division following allegations that the unit helped rich clients hide billions from the taxman.
Also during Gulliver’s seven years at the helm, HSBC was fined along with other global banks by US and British regulators for attempting to rig foreign exchange markets.
Last week a British court ruled that former currency trading executive Stuart Scott should be extradited to the United States to face fraud charges, days after a US jury found his alleged co-conspirator guilty.