HONG KONG — HSBC Holdings reported a 7.4 percent decline in full-year pretax profit on Wednesday, hurt by $4.9 billion worth of one-off charges.
After an unusually strong 2024, Europe’s largest bank posted a pretax profit of $29.9 billion last year, slightly ahead of the $28.9 billion average of broker estimates compiled by HSBC.
The charges included a $2.1 billion write-off related to its holdings in China’s Bank of Communications, legal provisions worth $1.4 billion, as well as $1 billion of restructuring and other related costs.
HSBC also said it was raising its target for return on tangible equity, a key profit metric for banks, to “17 percent or better” through 2028, up from its “mid-teens” target set for the three years through 2027.
“2025 marked a year of decisive action and swift execution,” Chief Executive Georges Elhedery said in an earnings statement. “We are becoming a simple, more agile, focused bank built for a fast-changing world.”
Elhedery, a career HSBC veteran, has shaken up the bank since assuming the chief executive role one and a half years ago by reorganizing operating divisions along East-West lines, shedding sub-scale investment banking units in the US and Europe, and slashing the ranks of senior managers.
Those efforts helped the bank’s London-listed stock surge 50 percent last year and it has climbed another 10 percent for the year to date.