HSBC Reports 10% Profit Rise As It Exits Brazil

Profit before tax at the UK's largest bank has risen by 10% to £8.7bn in the first six months of the year.

The profit rise came off the back off a 6% increase in revenue to  £21.1bn.

The results for the first half of the financial year come a little over a month after HSBC announced that it would axe up to 8,000 jobs in the UK as part of a global restructuring.

On that same investor call in June, the bank also outlined its plans to exit its Turkish and Brazilian operations, the latter of which it confirmed this morning as it revealed the sale of its Brazilian subsidiary to Bradesco for $5.2bn (£3.3bn).

This move sees HSBC move further away from its once global ambition to be the "world's local bank". It does still, however, employ nearly 270,000 people in 72 countries. 

Stuart Gulliver, who took the helm as HSBC's boss in 2011, praised the performance of its Asian operations.

"Strong revenue performance across our Asia businesses helped drive increased profits and Global Banking and Markets had a good six months," he said.

HSBC is currently toying with the idea of relocating its headquartersaway from the UK. The fact that its Asia business is continuing to perform strongly will add further clout to the argument for it to relocate back to Hong Kong. 

The group expects to announce a decision by the end of the year, and stress that any change would take two years to execute.

HSBC revealed in June that it expected 80% of its profit before tax in the future to come from Asia as it looks to focus on Guangdong region of China, which it views as a new 'Silk Road'.

"We think there is an opportunity to create another Hong Kong in Guangdong," it said. 

The results also revealed a provision of just over $1.1bn (£0.7bn) as regulatory settlements continue to haunt the bank, a Sky News City Editor Mark Kleinman reported earlier.

The latest provisions will come nearly nine months after HSBC was among six banks to pay fines to the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the US's Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over the FX scandal.

Shares in the bank have fallen over 8% in the last 12 months. 

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