HSBC News & Events

The company said, "The macroeconomic outlook is facing heightened uncertainty. The Group is well-positioned to manage the impacts of these challenges, and supporting our clients through this volatile period is a top priority. We retain all of the Group financial targets we announced at our full year 2025 annual results in February 2026, including a RoTE of 17% or better for 2026, 2027 and 2028, excluding notable items. We now expect banking NII of around $46bn in 2026, reflecting an improved interest rate outlook, while recognising the outlook remains volatile and uncertain. We now expect ECL charges as a percentage of average gross loans to be around 45bps in 2026, reflecting ongoing uncertainty in the outlook. Over the medium term, we retain our planning range of 30-40bps. We retain our commitment to Group-wide cost discipline. We're continuing to target growth in target basis operating expenses of approximately 1%, compared with 2025. We intend to continue to manage our CET1 capital ratio within our medium-term target range of 14.0% to 14.5%. A decision to recommence buybacks will be subject to our normal buyback considerations and process on a quarterly basis."

Reports Q1 revenue $18.6B vs. $17.6B last year. Reported profit before tax of $9.4B decreased by $0.1B compared with 1Q25. The decrease reflected higher expected credit losses and other credit impairment charges in 1Q26, an adverse impact from notable items and a rise in operating expenses. This was partly offset by revenue growth from strong Wealth fee and other income, as well as higher banking net interest income. Profit after tax of $7.4B was $0.2B lower than in 1Q25. In 1Q26, notable items included a disposal loss on classification to held for sale of $0.3B associated with the planned sale of the business in Malta, and losses of $0.2B from the recycling of foreign currency translation reserves following the completion of the sale of the UK life insurance business. In 1Q25, notable items included $0.1B of fair value losses on American Depositary Receipts received as part of the sale consideration for our business in Argentina. Constant currency profit before tax excluding notable items was $10.1B, broadly stable compared with 1Q25. Revenue growth, driven by a strong performance in Wealth and higher banking NII, was broadly offset by higher ECL and operating expense growth. Annualised return on average tangible equity in 1Q26 was 17.3%, compared with 17.9% in 1Q25. Excluding notable items,annualised RoTE in 1Q26 was 18.7%, a rise of 0.3 percentage points compared with 1Q25. Net interest margin of 1.60% was 1 basis points higher compared with 1Q25. NIM was 4bps lower compared with 4Q25, primarily reflecting the impact of a one-off item in 1Q26. Common equity tier 1 capital ratio of 14.0% decreased by 0.9 percentage points compared with 4Q25, reflecting the impact of the privatisation of Hang Seng Bank, dividends and an increase in risk-weighted assets, partly offset by regulatory profit.