HSBC H1 profit zooms two-fold to $6.76 bn

Global banking major HSBC today reported a two-fold jump in net profit at $6.76 billion for the first half of 2010 on account of decline in loan impairment charges.

The banking giant HSBC, which also has a significant presence in India, had a net profit of $3.34 billion in the same period last year.

The loan impairment charges and other credit risk provisions fell by $6.4 billion to $7.5 billion, the lowest since the start of the financial crisis, HSBC said in a statement.

In addition to strong performance in global banking and markets segment, personal financial services and commercial banking businesses delivered significantly to improved results, HSBC said.

Segment wise, pre-tax profits of global banking and markets rose by 51 per cent to $5.63 billion, commercial banking grew 28.9 per cent to $3.2 billion and personal financial service climbed 10.5 per cent to $1.17 billion during January-June 2010.

Besides registering strong growth, the company has also declared a dividend of 16 cents per share.

The company performed "comfortably ahead" in Asia, with pre-tax profits increasing by 20 per cent to USD 5.6 billion as the emerging economies led the global recovery in the first half of the year. While, HSBC noted its North American business swung into pre-tax profit for the first time in three years.

"Geographically, the strongest growth was in Asia, where we grew lending by 15 per cent. In commercial banking, we grew lending by nine per cent globally," the company said.

HSBC further said, "despite increasing economic uncertainty towards the end of the period, we saw appetite for credit grow steadily, especially among our business customers. This is now feeding through into lending growth, a trend we expect to continue."

London-based company's commercial banking customers up to 3.5 million and 85 per cent of the new customers accounting from emerging markets.

Last month, HSBC announced its third investment in two years through the acquisition of the Indian retail and commercial operations of the Royal Bank of Scotland, a move which will significantly increase its scale in India and give access to 1.1 million customer relationships.