HSBC yesterday smashed expectations in its first set of results since seeing off Ping An's split campaign, with rising rates helping the bank to record bumper profits.

In the three months to June, pretax profit hit $8.8bn (£6.86bn) - over $4bn higher than last year and surpassing the $8bn predicted by analysts.

The strong performance reflected the impact of rising interest rates around the world, which helped revenue rise 17 per cent to $16.7bn.

Chief executive Noel Quinn (pictured) said: "There was good broad-based profit generation around the world, higher revenue in our global businesses driven by strong net interest income, and continued tight cost control."

On the back of this, HSBC launched a $2bn share buyback scheme and announced an interim dividend of 10 cents per share.

Looking forward, the bank raised its guidance for interest income and its return on tangible equity - a key measure of profitability.

"HSBC's upbeat 2023 outlook and another $2bn buyback announced [yesterday] confirm its strong outlook," Tomasz Noetzel, a banking analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said. The results are the first since HSBC successfully fought off Ping An's campaign to spin off the bank's Asia business, which generates the vast majority of the lender's profit.

Quinn said yesterday that the vote on the proposal at the company's AGM in May was a "conclusive and decisive outcome as a vote".

"We've moved on from there. We are now very much focused on performance," he added.

Although Ping An's campaign was defeated, the bank is still exiting a series of markets around the world as it attempts to concentrate on its Asian business. Finance chief Georges Elhedery said HSBC is reviewing exits from as many as a dozen countries.

While Quinn said the bank was keeping a close eye on the economic situation in the UK, he said it has only seen "limited signs of stress in the mortgage book", reinforcing reports from Lloyds, Natwest and Barclays last week.

(c) 2023 City A.M., source Newspaper