Noel Quinn took the top job at HSBC with a clear plan in mind, articulated at the full-year results announcement in February. The highlights: become a world leader in wealth management, particularly in Asia; lead the world in serving mid-market corporates globally; be the leader in cross-border banking flows aligned to trade and capital corridors; and do all of this while digitalizing, transitioning to net zero and accepting that low interest rates globally are here to stay.
These were all sensible calls, if sometimes largely indistinguishable from previous strategic announcements, and by now it is possible to make some assessments of how it is all going.
Third-quarter numbers showed a 76% jump in reported profit before tax versus the same quarter a year previously, primarily due to releases of provisions set aside for Covid-related credit deterioration that just hasn’t happened.
In Asia, there are encouraging signs: revenues are climbing and, in particular, $3.1 billion of net new money into the private bank in Asia, out of a global total of $3.9
