Proactive Investors - HSBC Holdings PLC (LON:HSBA) reported strong growth in revenue and profit in the third quarter alongside plans for a new $3 billion share buy-back.
The Asia-focused bank said pre-tax profit in the quarter ended September 30, rose by $4.5 billion to $7.7 billion, reflecting the positive impact of higher interest rates and the $2.1 billion reversal of an impairment relating to the sale of its French business.
Revenue increased 40% to $16.2billion, as the higher interest rate environment supported growth in net interest income in all of global businesses, and non-interest income increased.
Noel Quinn, Group Chief Executive, said: "We have had three consecutive quarters of strong financial performance and are on track to achieve our mid-teens return on tangible equity target for 2023."
HSBC declared a third interim dividend of $0.10 per share and intends to make a further share buy-back of up to $3 billion, which is expected to be completed by its 2023 full-year results in February.
Net interest margin of 1.70% increased by 19 basis points compared with a year ago, and decreased by 2bps compared with the previous quarter, notably reflecting an increase in customers migrating their deposits to term products, particularly in Asia.
Bad debt charges of $1.1 billion were broadly in line with last year while operating expenses of $8.0 billion were 2% higher than last year.
Customer lending balances decreased by $24 billion compared with last year while customer accounts fell by $33 billion compared with a year ago.
The group’s common equity tier 1 capital ratio of 14.9% rose 0.2 percentage points compared with a last year.
The bank said it continues to target a return on average tangible equity in the mid-teens for 2023 and 2024, and sees net interest income in 2023 to be above $35 billion.