28th April 2021

HSBC profits rise after releasing reserves

HSBC bank, the largest in Europe, increased its profit by 117.4% year-on-year during the first quarter of 2021 to 3,880 million dollars (3,214 million euros), the entity reported today.

In the income statement that the group sent today to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, where it is listed, its CEO, Noel Quinn, assured that the figures reflect the "good start to the year", highlighting the drop in the expectation of loan losses, which the company attributes to the improvement in the economic outlook.

Between January and March, turnover fell by 5.1% to 12,986 million dollars (10,756 million euros), which HSBC mainly attributes to the impact of the interest rate reductions throughout 2020 on its businesses globally.

In the geographical breakdown, the bank focuses on profits before taxes, which in its main market, Asia, experienced a slight increase of 0.5% to 3,758 million dollars (3,113 million euros), while in Europe managed to get out of losses and recorded a gross profit of 997 million dollars (856 million euros).

HSBC obtained a positive result in all the regions in which it operates, also managing to exit losses in North America and multiplying its profits before taxes in Latin America by 3 and in the region formed by the Middle East and North Africa, almost by 8.

Thus, total earnings before taxes rose 79% to $ 5,779 million (€ 4,786 million), while operating profit increased by 74.3% to $ 4,894 million (€ 4,053 million). The general turnover derived from the operations of the financial institution, one of the largest in the world, was 13,421 million dollars (11,114 million euros), 25.9% higher than that registered in the first quarter of 2020, when the group has already begun to suffer the effects of the crisis caused by the covid pandemic.

Regarding the solvency ratio, Tier 1 -basic own resources- stood at 15.9% at the end of March, without variation compared to the end of the previous quarter but with an advance of 1.3 points compared to the same date last year. There was no great variation in the total net of loans granted at the end of the quarter, a figure that contracted by an almost imperceptible 0.01% to 1.04 trillion dollars (861,499 million euros). Most notable was the 14.5% rise in total deposits, which reached 1.65 trillion dollars (1.37 trillion euros).

The group already announced in February that it had no intention of paying quarterly dividends throughout this year, although it clarifies that the board will consider paying a semi-annual amount when they publish the results of the first half of 2021.