Mubasher: HSBC on Tuesday reported pre-tax profit growth of 16% to $19.9 billion in 2018 from a year ago, on the back of higher revenues from its global businesses.

The UK-based bank’s adjusted profit before tax grew 3% year-on-year to $21.7 billion, excluding the effects of foreign currency translation differences and movements in significant items, it said in a statement.

HSBC logged $53.78 billion in revenue last year, up 5% from $51.4 billion in 2017, while fourth-quarter revenue increased across the bank’s operations although some units recorded double-digit declines.

HSBC ascribed its revenue growth to “a rise in deposit revenue across our global businesses, primarily in Asia, as we benefited from wider margins and grew our balances.”

The bank explained that these rises were “partly offset” by a decrease in Corporate Centre revenue, indicating that adjusted revenue grew 4% $53.9 billion last year, when “excluding the effects of foreign currency translation differences and movements in significant items.”

Commenting on the 2018 financial results, HSBC Group CEO John Flint said the positive results reflect the bank’s progress against the plan he had outlined in mid-2018, indicating that profits and revenues had increased despite “a challenging fourth quarter.”

The top official further added that HSBC’s return on tangible equity last year was “significantly higher” than in 2017, which he described as being an “encouraging first step towards meeting our return on tangible equity target of more than 11% by 2020.”

HSBC’s loans and advances to customers rose by $32 billion. Excluding foreign currency differences, loans and advances increased 7% or by $66 billion in 2018, the statement indicated.

For 2018, HSBC maintained its dividend distributions at $0.51 per ordinary share, bringing the total value of the distribution to $10.2 billion for 2018.

HSBC said it was “confident of maintaining [dividends] at this level.”