HSBC said it grew UK home loans by $4.6bn (£3.7bn) from a year ago, edging up its share of the mortgage market.
The high street bank lifted its UK home loans share to 8.1% from 8%, adding in its annual report that it saw, “the opportunity to continue building our mortgage franchise”.
The UK is the bank’s largest mortgage market, making up 46.7% of its global mortgage portfolio, with Hong Kong and the US among other key home loan markets.
The average loan-to-value ratio on new lending in the UK was 69%, compared with around 53% for the overall mortgage portfolio.
The bank said its gross carrying amount for UK mortgages came in at £163.5bn at the end of last year.
It added: “There has been an increase observed across the market in the number of people seeking new mortgages of up to 35 years or more due to rising house prices, higher interest rates and cost of living challenges although the average life of an HSBC mortgage loan is approximately between five and eight years due to refinancing.”
Overall, the bank posted a pre-tax profit up 8.7% to $32.3bn in 2024, boosted by higher sales in its wealth and markets businesses.
However, its net interest margin — the difference between the interest the bank receives from making loans and the rate it pays out to depositors — fell 10 basis points to 1.56%.
It also cut staff global staff headcount by 3% to 211,304 this year, adding it plans to save $300m in 2025 and cut $1.5bn from its annual cost base by the end of next year.
Last October, new chief executive Georges Elhedery (pictured) split the lender into four broad divisions: the UK, Hong Kong, corporate and institutional banking and international wealth and premier banking in a bid to simplify the group.
The UK unit, led by chief executive Ian Stuart, contains personal banking — including First Direct and M&S Bank. It also contains commercial banking, including innovation banking.
Elhedery said: “Since becoming chief executive I have focused on simplifying how we operate and injected energy and intent into the way we deliver our strategy. We are creating a simple, more agile, focused bank built on our core strengths.”
