Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk past a logo displayed at a HSBC bank branch in the central district of Hong Kong.
Roy Liu| Bloomberg | Getty Images
SINGAPORE — HSBC, Europe’s largest bank by assets, is expected to report another hit to earnings as it attempts to recover from the economic shock of the coronavirus pandemic.
The London-headquartered bank is scheduled to release its financial report card for the July-to-September quarter on Tuesday at 12 p.m. HK/SIN.
HSBC’s reported pre-tax profit is forecast to come in at around $2.07 billion in the third quarter, according to analyst estimates compiled by the bank. That’s about 57.2% lower than the $4.84 billion in profits that the bank recorded a year ago.
Provisions for expected credit losses at the bank are forecast to increase by $2.02 billion in the quarter, the estimates showed.
While signs of recovery may not be “very robust” right now, the bank’s prospects could start to improve from here if Covid-19 cases around the world don’t get much worse, said Jackson Wong, asset management director at Amber Hill Capital.
“I think the worst probably could be over,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Tuesday.
“We haven’t seen a very bright future at this point so it could be (starting) to turn better, but it’s not very robust at this point yet,” he added.
HSBC is traditionally favored by investors for its steady dividend payouts. But the bank has stopped paying dividends as British regulators urged commercial lenders to preserve capital.
The bank’s Hong Kong-listed shares have plunged by 47% this year as of Friday, while its London-listed shares dived 45.7% over the same period, data by Refinitiv showed.
HSBC’s upcoming financial results follow that of other European banks, many of which have beaten analysts’ expectations.
Last week, fellow British lender Barclays reported third-quarter net profit that was more than double what analysts had forecast as the bank set aside less money for potential bad loans.
