HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank are expected to post bumper profits this week when they kick off the reporting season among Hong Kong’s banks, as demand for wealth management buttressed their income against thinning interest-rate margins.
HSBC may report a 7 per cent increase in its 2024 profit to US$24.09 billion when it reports its full-year results on Wednesday,, according to Bloomberg’s consensus analyst estimates. This is the first set of full-year results with Georges Elhedery at the helm as HSBC’s CEO.
Standard Chartered‘s 2024 profit may jump 22 per cent to US$4.23 billion, according to forecasts. The bank reports on Friday .
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“Standard Chartered’s operating performance last year was broadly similar to HSBC”, said Kenny Ng Lai-yin, a strategist at Everbright Securities International in Hong Kong. “Standard Chartered outperformed HSBC in net interest income, recording year-on-year growth in revenue during the first three quarters of last year. This gave Standard Chartered a stronger growth momentum compared to HSBC.”
HSBC’s Group Chief Executive Georges Elhedery during the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Wan Chai on 19 November 2024. Photo: Dickson Lee alt=HSBC’s Group Chief Executive Georges Elhedery during the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Wan Chai on 19 November 2024. Photo: Dickson Lee>
Standard Chartered’s 2024 pre-tax profit may have grown by 18 per cent, while HSBC’s pre-tax income may have increased by 5 per cent, Ng said.
Both banks are expected to buy back their shares from the market, maintaining last year’s budget when HSBC spent US$2 billion, while Standard Chartered poured US$1 billion into buy-backs, analysts said.
The aggregated pre-tax profit among the city’s 30 retail banks increased by 8.4 per cent in the first nine months of 2024, slower than the 62 per cent jump in 2023 and 18.7 per cent in 2022, according to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).
“Profitability remained good among the banks”, the HKMA’s Deputy Chief Executive Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang said in January, noting that the city’s banks must “focus more on bad debt issues and the increasing trend of financial scams this year”.
