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Don Weinland

HSBC Holdings lifted profit growth in the first three months of 2015, defying the expectation that Europe's biggest bank would notch another negative quarter.
Net profit between January and March hit US$5.25 billion, rising about 1 per cent above the same period a year ago, the bank said on Tuesday.
The results offered hope for its once-troubled markets business as well as on impairments and cost controls.
Adjusted pre-tax profit at the global banking and markets division hit US$2.96 billion, increasing 10.5 per cent in the first quarter year on year. Revenues from its foreign exchange business rose by 24 per cent year on year.
Operating expenses climbed 6 per cent year on year in the quarter but came down 38 per cent compared with the last three months of 2014.
"After the beating taken in Q4, this will be taken as a sign that management has a credible cost plan," according to a note from Sanford C. Bernstein.
Investors at a meeting on June 9 will get a clearer picture of how the bank intends to drastically cut costs in businesses in Brazil, the United States, Turkey and Mexico. Media reports have said HSBC plans to divest from some of those businesses.
Earnings for last year surprised on the downside with a 17 per cent year-on-year drop in pre-tax profits to US$22.8 billion.
At the time, the signal to investors was to expect less. Citing unforeseen regulatory costs, chief executive Stuart Gulliver downgraded his 2011 goal of hitting 12 per cent to 15 per cent annual return on equity to more than 10 per cent for the next three to five years.
Executives at the bank will also reveal at the June meeting their criteria for reviewing Britain as its headquarters.
During the bank's annual general meeting with investors, attention turned to the possibility of a departure from Britain, which the bank has called home since 1993. A decision on a recommendation from the board on the question of relocating would likely come before the end of the year, Gulliver said.
"It's measured in months, not measured in years, to make this decision," he said.
HSBC has paid increasingly high levies in Britain for costs shouldered by taxpayers during the global financial crisis and those costs are set to rise.
It paid out US$1.1 billion for the British bank levy last year, US$200 million more than in 2013. The bank said 58 per cent of its payout was not related to its British banking activities.
Analysts have said a move back to its roots in Hong Kong makes sense for HSBC given that it generated about two-thirds of its pre-tax profits in Asia last year.
Leaving Britain will not solve all of HSBC's problems. Earlier this year, the bank and its top leadership came under intense scrutiny when details on its Swiss unit's tax-dodging practices emerged. The bank was under investigation in more than 10 jurisdictions in connection with tax avoidance.
The scandal had hurt morale among top executives but not bank business in the first quarter, Gulliver said.
"It hasn't resulted in a decrease in business," he said, particularly in the private banking business, which brought in US$180 million in adjusted pre-tax profit, down 1.6 per cent on a year before.
Watch: HSBC posts profit and ponders moving headquarters to Asia



HSBC posts positive profit growth in first quarter

Results offer hope for Europe's biggest bank's once-troubled markets business as well as on impairments and cost controls. Photo: Bloomberg

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New | HSBC posts positive profit growth in first quarter