HSBC annual pre-tax profit more than doubles to £13.9 billion

HSBC has reported its annual pre-tax profit more than doubled to 18.9 billion US dollars (£13.9 billion) for the year ending December 31.

The figure represents a 10.1-billion-dollar (£7.4 b) increase on the same period in 2020, when pre-tax profits fell 34% on the year before.

The bank said the increase was driven by a net release of expected credit losses and other credit impairment charges, along with a higher share of profit from its associates.

HSBC said in its annual results the bank’s board has approved a second interim dividend of 0.18 dollars (£0.13) per share, making a a total for 2021 of 0.25 dollars (£0.18) per share as all regions reported a profit.

HSBC UK’s pre-tax profit rose by 4.5 billion dollars (£3.3b) to 4.8 billion dollars (£3.5b), while its Asia operations increased by 12.2 billion dollars (£9.3b).

Group chief executive Noel Quinn said the results reflected the global economic recovery from the pandemic.

He said: “We made good progress against our strategy in 2021, which contributed to a strong financial performance that was supported by the global economic recovery. All of our regions were profitable and we saw growth in the fourth quarter of 2021 in many of our business lines.

“We have good momentum coming into 2022 and are confident that we can continue to execute against our strategy.

“We also remain cognisant of the potential impact that further Covid-19-related uncertainty and continued inflation might have on us and our clients.”