At a glance
Our momentum accelerated into the second quarter and we’re executing our strategic priorities with pace, precision and discipline.
For the half-year ended 30 June 2026
Highlights:
- Profit before tax and revenue each grew by 6% compared with 1H25, on a constant currency basis and excluding notable items
- Reported profit before tax increased by 23% to $19.5bn, including the favourable year-on-year impact of notable items (see ‘context behind the numbers’ below)
- The increase also reflected growth in banking net interest income (up $1.6bn to $22.9bn) and higher fee and other income, primarily in Wealth and Wholesale Transaction Banking
- We’re resuming share buybacks with a planned buyback of up to $1bn – our first since the Hang Seng Bank privatisation announcement in October – and have approved a second interim dividend of $0.10 per share
- Annualised return on average tangible equity (RoTE) was 18.2%, or 19.1% excluding notable items
- Common equity tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio was 14.1%, a decrease of 0.8 percentage points compared with 31 December 2025 (see ‘context behind the numbers’ below)
Group CEO
Growing our businesses
We’re enabling our four businesses – Hong Kong, UK, Corporate and Institutional Banking, and International Wealth and Premier Banking – to focus on their core strengths, grow, work together more effectively and deepen customer relationships.
Outlook
We remain confident in achieving the Group financial targets we set out in February 2026, including a RoTE of 17% or better for 2026, 2027 and 2028, excluding notable items.
We continue to target year-on-year growth in revenue from 2026 to 2028, rising to 5% growth in 2028, excluding notable items and on a constant currency basis.
We also maintain our dividend payout ratio target basis of 50% in 2026, 2027 and 2028, excluding material notable items and related impacts.
This year, we now expect banking NII of at least $46bn in 2026, reflecting a continued favourable interest rate outlook, while recognising the outlook remains volatile and uncertain.
We continue to expect ECL charges (expected credit losses and other credit impairment charges) as a percentage of average gross loans to be around 45bps (including held-for-sale loan balances) for 2026, reflecting ongoing uncertainty in the outlook. Over the medium term, we retain our planning range of 30-40bps.
The Group remains on track to deliver year-on-year growth in operating expenses of approximately 1% in 2026 on a target basis.
Our target basis operating expenses measure excludes notable items and includes the impact of simplification-related saves associated with our strategic reorganisation.
We intend to continue to manage the CET1 capital ratio within our medium-term target range of 14% to 14.5%.
Context behind the numbers
The increase in reported profit before tax primarily reflected a year-on-year net favourable impact of $2.2bn from notable items.
Notable items in 1H26 included disposal losses of $0.3bn recognised on classification to held for sale associated with the planned sale of our business in Malta. They also included restructuring costs associated with our organisational simplification, of $0.3bn, and losses of $0.2bn from the recycling of foreign currency translation reserves following the completion of the sale of our UK life insurance business.
In 1H25, notable items included dilution and impairment losses of $2.1bn related to our associate BoCom, and restructuring costs associated with our organisational simplification of $0.6bn.
The decrease in our CET1 capital ratio reflected the impact of the privatisation of Hang Seng Bank, dividends and an increase in risk-weighted assets, partly offset by regulatory profit.
Downloads and Zoom meeting
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