Photo: Gordon Joly, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Image resized.
HSBC said Tuesday it will start a new share buyback of up to $1 billion after third-quarter pre-tax profit rose 32% to $9.6 billion, helped by the fading of last year’s legal charges and steady growth in interest income.
The bank said profit after tax rose 38% to $7.6 billion. Revenue was $18.6 billion, up $0.8 billion from a year earlier, led by net interest income, the gap between what the bank earns on loans and pays on deposits, which rose 6% to $9.3 billion. Costs fell 12% to $8.8 billion, mostly because the third quarter of 2025 included $1.4 billion of legal provisions that did not repeat. Excluding such one-off items and at constant exchange rates, pre-tax profit rose $0.9 billion to $10.0 billion.
Returns and capital
HSBC’s annualised return on average tangible equity was 17.7%, up from 12.3% a year earlier, or 18.2% excluding one-off items. The board approved a third interim dividend of $0.10 a share. The bank finished a $1 billion buyback announced with interim results on Sept. 28 and plans the new buyback of up to $1 billion, which it expects to complete by its full-year results announcement. Its core capital ratio, a measure of financial cushion, was 13.9%, down 0.2 percentage points from June.
“As we simplify HSBC, we are creating greater capacity to invest, grow and deliver strong returns for our shareholders,” Group CEO Georges Elhedery said in the release.
Credit and customers
Credit losses fell 17% to $0.8 billion, with lower charges tied to Hong Kong commercial real estate and in the U.K. and Mexico. Customer lending rose $7.8 billion from the second quarter and customer accounts rose $9.1 billion, helped by deposit inflows in Hong Kong and by India’s foreign currency non-resident deposit scheme. Lending tied to the bank’s planned exit from retail banking in Australia was moved to held for sale. Over nine months, pre-tax profit rose 26% to $29.2 billion.
JBizNews Desk | London
© JBizNews.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution is strictly prohibited.
