HSBC profits up 15% to £13.8 billion

In bank reporting season, HSBC have turned in a net profit of £13.8 billion for 2011, 15 % up on 2010, making the most of it's international presence rather than having all it's eggs in the stressed out UK banking basket. This is just short of the £15 billion they posted in 2007.

Around 90% of HSBC profits come from abroad so they have been better placed to ride out the Eurozone crisis than most, though their share price has suffered from the sustained general selling of the financial sector over the past 12 months. Investors were not sure of the exposure banks had both to weak Eurozone countries and to other banks that may have their finances put under pressure, due to losses sustained over Greek bonds.