HSBC has released its financial results for the first quarter of the year. In the period between January and March 2022, the financial services provider registered significant falls in revenues and profits.
Q1 2022 revenue came in at $12.5 billion, down by 4% compared to the same period last year.
Profit after tax fell by almost 25% in Q1 2022, reaching $3.4 billion, compared to $4.5 billion in Q1 2021. Profit before tax decreased to $4.2 billion from last year’s numbers.
The company also saw reported operating expenses down by 3%, and adjusted operating expenses by 2%.
According to HSBC, all regions continued to be profitable in the first quarter. Its Asian operations contributed $2.8 billion to Group reported profit before tax, and HSBC UK contributed $1.2 billion.
Noel Quinn, the Group Chief Executive at HSBC, commented:
I’m encouraged by our start to the year. Our strategy is on track, with organic growth and good momentum across most parts of the Group. While profits were down on last year’s first quarter due to market impacts on Wealth revenue and a more normalized level of ECL, higher lending across all businesses and regions, and good business growth in personal banking, insurance and trade finance bode well for future quarters. We have further reduced costs while maintaining high levels of technology investment and remain on track to achieve our cost and RWA reduction targets for 2022.
The Russian invasion in Ukraine has also had a negative impact on HSBC’s first quarter financial results. Quinn highlighted that HSBC Russia is not accepting new customers or businesses.
Quinn added
The vast majority of our business in Russia serves multinational corporate clients headquartered in other countries, and as a global bank, HSBC has a responsibility to help them manage these challenging circumstances.
In the beginning of the year, HSBC revealed plans to sell a major part of its stake in a China securities brokerage joint venture company.
Experienced writer and journalist, working in the global online trading sector, Steffy is the Editor of LeapRate. She has previous experience as a copywriter and has been with the company since January 2020. Steffy has a British and American Studies degree from St. Kliment Ochridski University in Sofia.
