The world’s largest banking organization, HSBC, reports that higher interest rates have helped its quarterly profit nearly treble.
The London-based company’s profit before tax for the final three months of 2022 was $5.2 billion (£4.3 billion), up more than 90% from the same period the previous year.
Nevertheless, after accounting for the cost of selling its French retail banking operations, pre-tax profit for the entire year decreased by $1.4 billion to $17.5 billion.
Moreover, HSBC is in the midst of selling its operations in Canada.
The bank stated that once the transaction was completed, it intended to pay out dividends to shareholders using the proceeds from that sale.
Noel Quinn, the CEO of HSBC, stated that “2022 was another successful year for HSBC.” He continued, “We are on course to offer better returns in 2023.”
The company finally succeeded in selling its French retail bank in June 2021 after a protracted battle to do so as it turned its attention to Asia.
As a result of that divestment, HSBC now anticipates suffering a $2.4 billion damage to its profitability.
The Royal Bank of Canada and HSBC announced their agreement to sell each other’s Canadian banking operations in November.
The transaction, which was valued at $13.5 billion Canadian ($10 billion; £8.3 billion), is anticipated to close this year.
Due to pressure from its largest shareholder, the Chinese insurance behemoth Ping An, HSBC has begun selling businesses.
Ping An has been publicly urging HSBC to separate its operations in Asia to boost earnings ever since last year.
In recent years, HSBC has also been laying off employees to help with cost-cutting.
