HSBC Bank Canada posts strong Q4 and 2018 results

For the quarter, profit before income tax expense was $222 million, up 7.8%. For the year, that figure was $991 million, up 10.7%.

Operating income was $565 million for the quarter and $2.26 billion for the year, increases of $25 million or 4.6%, and $194 million or 9.4%, respectively.

Results were driven by higher net interest income from growth in lending and deposit balances and improved margins from higher interest rates, the bank says.

Also contributing were higher gains on the disposal of financial investments and increased revenue from information technology services provided to affiliated HSBC Group companies, it says.

Return on average common equity was 12.6% for the quarter and 14.5% for the year, representing year-over-year increases of 0.9 percentage points and 1.2 percentage points, respectively.

In retail banking and wealth management, the bank says that focusing on customer needs led to strong growth in total relationship balances (lending, deposits and wealth balances), particularly for deposits and mortgages. Volume growth in retail products and higher margins led to total operating income of $185 million for the quarter and $737 million for the year, an increase of $8 million or 4.5%, and $62 million or 9.2%, respectively.

The bank’s total assets at Dec. 31, 2018, were $103.4 billion, an increase of $7 billion or 7.3% from the previous year — primarily driven by “strong growth in loans and advances of $6.8 billion, across all of our global businesses,” the bank says in the release.

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) will be the first of Canada’s big banks to report their first-quarter results when they come out Friday. RBC posted a record annual profit of $12.4 billion in its 2018 financial year helped by rising interest rates and U.S. tax reforms.

With a file from Canadian Press.