Business
Scam-hit HSBC's profit slumps by 17 percent in 2014
London, Feb 23
HSBC Holdings, the
Britain-based bank which is in trouble following a tax evasion scandal,
Monday announced that its reported profit before tax reached $18.68
billion in 2014, down by 17 percent from the previous year.
HSBC
said the primary reasons for the drop in profit were lower business
disposal and reclassification gains and the negative effect, on both
revenue and costs, of significant items, settlements, British customer
redress and associated provisions.
Adjusted operating expenses of
HSBC in 2014 were $37.854 billion, increasing by 6.1 percent from the
previous year's $35.682 billion, data showed. The bank said these were
attributed to increased regulatory and compliance costs, inflationary
pressures and investment in strategic initiative to support growth.
Earnings
per share (EPS) and dividends per share for 2014 were $0.69 and $0.50
respectively, compared with $0.84 and $0.49 respectively for 2013,
figures showed.
The group's Common equity Tier 1 ratio (CET 1), a
gauge of financial stamina, slipped to 10.9 percent at the end of
December 2014, down from the 11.3 percent at the end of June 2014,
figures also showed.
"2014 was a challenging year in which we
continued to work hard to improve business performance while managing
the impact of a higher operating cost base," Xinhua news agency quoted
Stuart Guilliver, chief Executive of the group, as saying in a
statement:
"Many of the challenging aspects of the fourth quarter results were common to the industry as a whole," he added.
Earlier
this month, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a
Washington-based publication, reported details on how HSBC's Swiss unit
handled accounts for tax evaders and criminals during the period from
2005 to 2007.