 has seen "excellent" results for the first half of 2017, seeing pre-tax profits rise 5 percent to $10.2 billion (£7.8 billion).){kind=link}
HSBC (LON:HSBA) has seen “excellent” results for the first half of 2017, seeing pre-tax profits rise 5 percent to $10.2 billion (£7.8 billion).
The lender also announced a share buyback of up to $2 billion, which it will complete by the end of this year.
“The return of capital comes from the fact that the business is very accretive, very profitable … the dividend is 51 cents for the foreseeable future,” said HSBC Finance Director Iain Mackay on Monday.
HSBC has carried out two years of recovery measures to streamline its business, cutting tens of thousands of staff in the process.
The 2016 results showed operating expenses drop 12 percent to $16.4 billion. This was partly helped by the selling off of its Brazil operations.
Chairman Douglas Flint described the results as “extremely pleasing”.
HSBC’s chief executive Stuart Gulliver said: “In the past 12 months, we have paid more in dividends than any other European or American bank and returned $3.5bn to shareholders through share buybacks,”
Flint has also called for an overhaul of financial crime detection over the impact of Brexit and attempts to fragment global financial regulation.
“The essential questions that have to be addressed are whether, at the conclusion of the negotiations, the economies of Europe will continue to have access to at least the same amount of financing capacity and related risk management services, and as readily available and similarly priced, as they have enjoyed with the UK as part of the EU,”.
“What is…. clear is that greater cooperation between the public and private sectors, together with a refresh of bank secrecy laws and regulation designed for a different age, would significantly increase the effectiveness of our joint efforts,” he added.
Shares in the group jumped over 3 percent in early trade in London to 768.40p.