Foreign news: HSBC to review operations, Doha moving to India, UBS to settle on FX fines, chip cards 07 May 2015 4:05PM Banking Day staff Foreign news, HSBC's net profit for the first quarter of 2015 hit US$5.25 billion, rising about one per cent above the same period a year ago. In a welcome reversal of the poor final quarter result for 2014, adjusted pre-tax profit at the group's global banking and markets division hit US$2.96 billion, a 10.5 per cent increase in the first quarter, year on year, the South China Morning Post reports. This may not be enough to save HSBC's businesses in the Americas and Turkey, with a meeting on 9 June expected to discuss a sell-off and revisit thoughts returning the bank's HQ to its roots in Hong Kong. Doha Bank plans to inject capital of about US$250 million into its Indian operations over the next three years to support its US$2.5 billion loan book. Business Standard reports the Qatar-based commercial bank has a US$2 billion exposure to Indian companies through its overseas operations. The bank, which has three branches in India, intends to grow its India-linked businesses by US$5 billion. Swiss major UBS reported its biggest quarterly profit in nearly five years, justifying the bank's decision to refocus on wealth management and slim down its investment bank. First-quarter profit for 2015 increased to 88 per cent to 1.98 billion Swiss francs (A$2.7 billion). The bank's capital ratio rose to 13.7 per cent of risk-weighted assets, up from 13.4 per cent at the end of 2014. Reuters, citing sources, reported last week that the US Department of Justice and five major banks, including UBS, were set to reach multi-billion dollar agreements later this month. In line, UBS lowered its litigation reserves by SF300 million, to 2.7 billion francs, saying these were adequate. Figures for the final quarter of 2014 released by the global technical body EMVCo show that by the end of last year, the number of EMV payment cards in circulation rose by 1 billion, from 2.37 billion in 2013. According to the latest statistics from EMVCo's members - American Express, Discover, JCB, MasterCard, UnionPay and Visa - chip card adoption rates increased in every region, worldwide, by the end of 2014. EMVCo also reported 32 per cent of all chip "card-present" transactions - both contact and contactless - conducted globally between January and December 2014 used EMV chip technology, up from 29 per cent a year earlier.