One of the largest banks in Europe, HSBC Holdings Plc, reported an increase in its third-quarter net profit by 52.5% to $5.23 billion. Therefore, the profit exceeds the figure over the same period a year ago which came in at $3.43 billion.
Due to $1.4 billion cuts in legal expenditures, the HSBC profit before tax increased by 32% to $6.1 billion compared with $4.61 billion a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the experts anticipated profit before tax at $5.2 billion.
Despite the increase in profit, HSBC revenue in the last quarter dropped by 4% to $14.04 billion, mainly due to lower revenues in its retail banking and wealth management, as well as in global banking and markets businesses.
Moreover, the bank’s revenue was affected by the stock market correction in Asia during the third quarter.
In addition, in September quarter of 2015, the bank cut down risk-weighted assets by $32 billion. From the beginning of this year, such assets have been reduced by $82 billion. HSBC is planning to reduce risk-weighted assets by $290 billion by the end of 2017.
HSBC operating expenses also rose to $8.58 billion due to investments in programs which increase the bank’s regulatory compliance.
