HSBC’s pre-tax profits fell marginally in the opening quarter, the lender has revealed.

The UK-based bank’s quarterly profit before tax fell to 9.4 billion dollars (£6.96 billion), down from 9.5 billion (£7 billion) a year earlier.

HSBC said the decrease reflected higher expected credit losses and other credit impairment charges, as well as a rise in operating expenses.

Revenue increased 6% to 18.6 billion dollars (£13.7 billion) compared with the opening quarter of 2025, driven by strong performance in wealth management and the Hong Kong business segment.

“We continued to make positive progress in creating a simple, more agile, growing HSBC,” chief executive Georges Elhedery said.

“Each of our four businesses contributed to firm-wide revenue growth and each delivered an annualised RoTE in excess of 17%, excluding notable items.”

He added: “In periods of greater uncertainty, customers turn to us more as their trusted partner to navigate complexity with the financial strength, stability and expertise…