Retail banking improving for HSBC

The number of customers using HSBC Bank Australia's flagship transaction account, Premier, increased by 60 per cent in 2009 and the bank was able to use the strong growth in deposits to grow its mortgage portfolio by 25 per cent.

The bank's mortgage book, which stood at $6.6 billion at year end, is fully funded by deposits.

The performance of the bank's personal financial services division was one of the highlights for HSBC last year. The division reported pre-tax profit of $38 million, up 81 per cent on the $21 million of pre-tax profit in 2008.

HSBC Bank Australia chief executive Paulo Maia said growth in Premier customer numbers was the highest the bank has achieved.

Maia said: "Premier is a unique product with cross-border facilities and multiple country accounts. More and more business people and travellers are becoming aware of the product's usefulness."

Overall HSBC Bank Australia reported pre-tax profit of $251 million for 2009, up 25 per cent on $201 million reported in 2008.

The global banking and markets division increased pre-tax profit by 45 per cent to $177 million. Revenue growth came from foreign exchange trading, interest rates, fixed income debt finance and advisory.

Maia said volatility drove some of the growth and with more settled global markets in the current year the division might not achieve the same result.

But he said other contributors to the division's increased revenue, such as customer growth and a push into project finance, were sustainable.

The bank's dead spot, as it has been for other banks, was its commercial banking division - down from pre-tax profit of $81 million in 2008 to $41 million last year.

Maia said: "We were open for business but it was the most challenging part of the business. We got some new to the bank customers and we were active in maintaining our important market share in trade finance."

The bank's gross loans and advances dropped from $13.6 to $13.5 billion.