LONDON: Global banking giant HSBC reported Tuesday a surge in quarterly net profit, boosted by rising interest rates and its rescue of the UK arm of failed US lender Silicon Valley Bank.
Profit after tax almost quadrupled to $10.3 billion in the three months to March from a year earlier, UK-headquartered HSBC said, while also pouring cold water on talk of a global industry crisis.
The bank also benefitted from its reversal of a $2.1 billion writedown that had been linked to the planned sale of its French consumer banking activities to the US fund Cerberus.
That deal is now thought to be at risk of falling through.
HSBC shares rallied 5.5 percent in midday London deals on Tuesday, as the bank announced a stock buy-back worth up to $2 billion and issued a bright outlook.
The optimism came despite the move by US regulators on Monday to seize the lender First Republic and orchestrate its sale to JPMorgan Chase.
It was the latest government intervention after the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and the takeover of embattled Credit Suisse by its Swiss peer UBS.
“We do not believe there is a global banking crisis on the horizon,” chief executive Noel Quinn told reporters Tuesday. “We do not believe it’s global systemic issues.”
He added that SVB UK, which HSBC acquired in March, was a “well run” business with a “good” quality loan book that was a “natural fit” for the group.
The acquisition had allowed HSBC to attract significant inflows, Quinn said.
Rising interest rates worldwide, aimed at fighting sky-high inflation, have weighed particularly heavily on the operations of midsize US banks, which have seen their financing costs surge.
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