Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk past a logo displayed at a HSBC bank branch in the central district of Hong Kong.
Roy Liu| Bloomberg | Getty Images
HSBC said Monday its reported pre-tax profit jumped to $10.8 billion in the first half of 2021 — beating estimates by analysts.
The bank’s revenue fell 4% from a year ago to $25.6 billion in the first half of 2021.
Analysts had expected the Asia-focused bank to report a big jump in half-year profit from a recovering global economy and lower provisioning for potential bad loans.
The bank’s reported profit before tax for the January-to-June period was forecast to more than double to $9.45 billion compared with a year ago, according to analyst estimates compiled by the bank.
But revenue was expected to fall around 4.6% year-over-year to $25.52 billion, according to the estimates.
Investors were also watching for any update on dividend payouts by the bank.
The London-headquartered bank said in February that it will not pay quarterly dividends this year. But Chief Financial Officer Ewen Stevenson told CNBC in April that the lender will “look hard” at paying an interim dividend in the middle of the year.
HSBC shares in Hong Kong were up by around 1% in early trade Monday.
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HSBC reported financial results for the first six months of 2021.