HSBC profits jump to £13.8bn

HSBC's annual profits rose 15% to $21.9bn (£13.8bn) before tax, fuelled by increasing revenues from its emerging markets customer base.

The bank, the latest to report in the UK after losses from RBS and Lloyds, vastly outperformed its London-listed peers, albeit with some help from an accounting gain on its debt which boosted profits by $3.9bn. With the gain stripped out, underlying pre-tax profits dipped 6% to $17.7bn. However, overall it is the most profitable Western bank to report so far, despite falling short of the record profit it achieved in 2007 of $24.2bn. HSBC also revealed it awarded its group chief executive Stuart Gulliver £5.9m in bonuses and longer-term incentives for 2011, after a fall of 6% in und...