HSBC said today that it had made a good start to 2007 on the back of a strong performance in Asia.
The new management team at Europe's largest bank today addressed shareholders for the first time since it took over last year.
In Asia, the bank said it was capitalising on growing economies in the first months this year, with robust equity markets boosting investment-related fees and broking income in Hong Kong, while Latin American revenue growth was encouraging.
HSBC's corporate, investment banking and markets business was being led by emerging markets, with over half its pretax profit from Asia and Latin America and particularly strong performances in foreign exchange and securities services.
The bank said revenue growth in Europe was constrained "as a result of our credit appetite and competitive forces" and said the major focus had been on savings products.
UK banks signalled a sharp rise in bad debts last year as customers struggled to repay unsecured loans, but HSBC said the situation did not deteriorate in the first months this year.
Today marks a year in charge for HSBC chairman Stephen Green and chief executive Michael Geoghegan, who have spent much of their first 12 months at the helm handling the fallout from the bank's exposure to the US housing market downturn.