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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Outgoing HSBC chief executive Noel Quinn said the bank was well-placed to keep growing under his successor Georges Elhedery, even without the boost it has enjoyed from rising interest rates. Speaking as the bank announced a $3bn share buyback and higher-than-expected second-quarter profits, Quinn said the bank had “significantly lowered our sensitivity” to rates and invested in businesses such as wealth and transaction banking that are less dependent on higher rates. Pre-tax profits increased to $8.9bn in the second quarter, from $8.8bn a year earlier and ahead of analysts’ forecasts of $7.8bn. But costs continued to rise, and net interest income fell more than 11 per cent in the quarter. Quinn said he had “no regrets whatsoever” about his time at HSBC and it had “been a joy” to lead the bank, as he presented the final earnings report under his leadership. “When I took over five years ago the numbers did not . . . do justice to HSBC’s heritage and strategic position,” he said, and that had now changed. Quinn, who has led the bank for five years and been with the company for 37, will be replaced in September by Elhedery, its chief financial officer. HSBC’s financial controller Jon Bingham will fill in as interim chief financial officer.RecommendedHSBC’s net interest income fell 11.3 per cent to $8.3bn in the second quarter. The bank’s net interest margin, a key measure of how profitable its lending is, fell to 1.62 per cent from 1.7 per cent a year earlier. More than half of HSBC’s $66bn in revenue last year came from net interest income.HSBC said its wealth business — including life insurance and private banking — was a “key driver” of revenue growth, and that profits had risen in its “home markets” of Hong Kong and the UK.HSBC’s shares rose as much as 3.1 per cent in early London trading. They have risen more than 10 per cent since the start of the year. The $3bn buyback is the latest in a series of benefits for HSBC shareholders in recent years, including multiple rounds of share buybacks and a rising dividend. On Wednesday, it announced an interim dividend of 10 cents a share. The bank’s return on tangible equity, a measure of profitability, was 21.4 per cent for the first half of the year, down from 22.4 per cent a year earlier.Under Quinn’s leadership the bank has fought off a campaign to split up the bank by its largest shareholder, the Chinese insurer Ping An; bought Silicon Valley Bank’s UK business; agreed the sale of units in Argentina, Canada, France, Greece and Mauritius and embarked on a cost-cutting plan that included slashing tens of thousands of jobs.Cutting costs will be at the top of Elhedery’s agenda, particularly as employee count has remained persistently high despite Quinn’s pledge to get the number of full-time jobs to 200,000 by the end of last year. HSBC reported expenses of $8.1bn in the second quarter, up 3 per cent from a year earlier, which it said was partly due to higher technology costs and inflation.Elhedery said the bank was “committed to cost discipline” and he was “confident” it would meet its cost targets, partly because some previous cost rises were one-offs. He said he would “continue building on” the bank’s strategy and “accelerate the pace of execution”.
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