HSBC's Latest Plans

When NOEL QUINN took over as interim chief executive of HSBC from John Flint,ousted by the board in August, analysts expected a change in style.

Whereas Mr Flint was seen as a cerebral introvert, Mr Quinn is forthcoming, verging on blunt.

On that front, at least, HSBC's first quarterly-results announcement on his watch did not disappoint.Although its Asian business "held up well in a challenging environment",

performance in other areas was “not acceptable”, Mr Quinn said on October 28th.

Third-quarter net profits, down by 24% on the same period last year, to $3bn, undershot pundits' forecasts by 14%.Revenues fell by 3.2%, to $13.4bn, missing expectations by 3%.Return on tangible equity (ROTE), its chief measure of profitability, reached 6.4%, compared with analysts' forecast of 9.5%.

Investors agreed with Mr Quinn: the bank's shares dropped by 4.3% on the news in London.

They have fallen by about 11% in the past six months.HSBC's woes can be blamed in part on broader conditions: low interest rates, a slowing global economy,business uncertainty in Brexit-hit Britain and trade tensions (HSBC is the world's largest provider of trade finance).Yet that is hardly likely to reassure investors.

Investors are not yet pricing in any impact from protests in Hong Kong, where HSBC is the largest lender.

That is too optimistic, says Fahed Kunwar, at Redburn, another broker.Mr Quinn does not deny the scale of the challenge.HSBC is ditching its rote target of 11% for 2020, and there are hints of a radical overhaul.

Mr Quinn spoke of accelerating plans to "remodel" poorly performing businesses.

In August the bank announced a plan to complete 4,700 redundancies by the end of this year.

Tom Rayner of Numis Securities, a broker, points out that although some of these trends may be reversed,others, such as Brexit and the trade wars, may linger. Interest rates may well fall further.

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