The private banking division of HSBC, the UK-listed bank, said today that its pre-tax profit for 2009 was $1.1 billion, a year-on-year fall of 21 per cent.

The private banking division of HSBC, the UK-listed bank, said today that its pre-tax profit for 2009 was $1.1 billion, a year-on-year fall of 21 per cent.

Client assets, as at 1 January this year, stood at $352 billion, a fall of 16 per cent from a year before, and HSBC logged net outflows from the private bank of $7 billion, it said in a statement.

The cost/efficiency ratio was 60.5 per cent at the end of last year, up from 58.3 per cent.

Last year, HSBC said that its group chief executive, Michael Geoghegan, would be headquartered in Hong Kong, to reflect the bank’s increasing focus on Asia as a source for future growth. He made the shift at the start of February. (HSBC’s corporate HQ remains in London, however).

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