Banking

  Bloomberg HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA is appealing a HK$605 million ($78 million) fine imposed by Hong Kong’s securities regulator in connection with its sales of structured products including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.-related notes between 2003 and 2008. The appeal hearing began in the city on Wednesday after the Securities and Futures Commission previously alleged failures in internal controls ...

  Paris / AFP France’s BNP Paribas has became the first European major bank to post a profit rise for the first quarter, delighting analysts and sending its shares sharply higher. Net profit grew by over 10 percent year-on-year to 1.8 billion euros ($2.1 billion) for the first three months of the year, thanks to one-off gains but also to ...

  New York / AFP Erste Group Bank AG, Austria’s biggest bank, beat analyst expectations for first-quarter profit as a sharp drop in bad debt provisions outweighed declining lending and fee revenue. Net income came in at 274.7 million euros ($316 million) in the three months through March compared with 226 million euros a year earlier, the Vienna-based bank said in ...

  Madrid / AFP Spanish banks, which slimmed down after a property boom went bust in 2008, are once again closing branches and slashing jobs as their profitability is hit by stiff competition. The country’s three biggest lenders — Santander, BBVA and CaixaBank — last week all posted lower first quarter net profits, especially in Spain, which is grappling with ...

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc reported a bigger first-quarter profit than analysts forecast, as Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver guided the Asia-focussed bank through turbulent global markets while paring back costs. Pretax profit fell to $6.1 billion from $7.1 billion a year earlier, the London-based bank said on Tuesday, beating the $4.3 billion average estimate of 14 analysts compiled by ...

  Reuters Summit Bank has received approval from Pakistan’s central bank to conduct due diligence on Burj Bank, it said in a stock exchange filing, in the latest bid for the unlisted lender, which is seeking to boost capital through a stake sale. The acquisition of a majority shareholding in Burj Bank would fit the long term strategy of Summit ...

  BLOOMBERG Commerzbank AG fell as much as 9.4 percent in Frankfurt, the most in almost three months, after market turmoil and a squeeze to margins hurt sales and halved first-quarter profit. Net income fell to 163 million euros ($188 million) from 338 million euros a year earlier, the Frankfurt-based company said in a statement on Tuesday. Analysts expected profit ...

  Sydney / AFP ANZ Bank’s interim net profit slumped 22 percent on Tuesday on the back of impairment and restructuring charges, but the result was welcomed by the market as the lender repositions for a challenging future. The Australia and New Zealand Banking (ANZ) Group’s result for the six months to March 31 came in at Aus$2.73 billion (US$2.0 ...

  Bloomberg UBS Group AG said first-quarter profit dropped 64 percent, missing analyst estimates, as market turbulence eroded earnings at the wealth-management and securities units. The shares plunged. Net income declined to 707 million Swiss francs ($741 million) from 1.98 billion francs a year earlier, the Zurich-based bank said on Tuesday. That fell short of the 735 million-franc average estimate ...

  Sydney / AFP Australian banking heavyweight Westpac posted a three percent rise in interim net profit on Monday as it battles regulatory changes and rising bad loans, disappointing investors who savaged the share price. Westpac’s Aus$3.70 billion (US$2.81 billion) result in the six months to March 31 kicked off a week of half-yearly reporting from the nation’s top lenders, ...