HSBC’s 2015 profit slips to $13.5 B on fourth-quarter loss

Europe’s largest bank said today in its full-year report that its 2015 pre-tax profit had risen one percent to $18.8 billion (£13.2 billion).

UK-based HSBC also said it has received inquiries from the US Department of Justice regarding its banking relationships with certain individuals and entities that are or may be associated with the global football body FIFA.

HSBC is trying to improve the bank’s returns under Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver by pulling out of countries and exiting low-earning businesses.

“We made a good start in implementing the plans that we announced at our Investor Update in June”.

Meanwhile, HSBC this month also finally chose to keep its headquarters in the United Kingdom after a long-running relocation review.

The decision to remain in London follows a series of concessions to the City by Chancellor George Osborne in recent months.

HSBC to axe up to 25,000 jobs globally in savings drive.

“We have therefore chose to retain and restructure our Turkish operations”.

The market expectation is for US$21.4 billion (HK$166.4 billion) in profit before tax, according to Bloomberg.

HSBC earlier reported weaker than expected profits for 2015, dragged down by an unexpected $858 million loss in the fourth quarter.

Looking more closely at the bank’s fourth quarter results, revenue fell 18% to $11.8 billion with net interest income dipping to $8.1 billion, while impairments rose 32% to $1.64 billion.

Mumbai: HSBC Holdings Plc on Monday reported a decline in its profit before tax from its India business as part of its annual earnings announced on Monday morning.

The Government’s last tranche of shares in Lloyds was slated to go on sale in the spring, but it is now thought it will be halted until after Easter.

It comes after a turbulent year which saw a market rout in China and commodity prices plunge as well as tightening credit due to a U.S. rates hike. Provisions for investigations by US$500mln, while there was a further US$559mln set aside for PPI mis-selling.

The bank also said some services of its HSBC Finance arm “has been the subject of enforcement actions against other institutions by regulators, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the OCC, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation”.

The bank total revenue stood at $57.7 billion.