Europe's largest bank, HSBC, has announced a 13 per cent increase in profits to £6.97 billion after strong performances in emerging markets and investment banking.
Total operating income increased by 14 per cent from $34,334 (£16,941) million to $42,092 million (£20,769 million).
Group chairman Stephen Green said "excellent performances" across Asia were responsible for the strong results, saying they had "offset the impact of higher consumer finance impairment charges in the US and a challenging environment for our personal business in Europe".
HSBC's commercial banking division's pre-tax profits improved by 20 per cent on last year's results.
However, the personal financial services division suffered a fall of 20 per cent in profits due to "challenging conditions in the UK and to the weaknesses we have already highlighted in our US correspondent mortgage business."
Mr Green said the company was focussing its operations on three trends to ensure growth. He said concentrating on developments such as the growth of emerging markets outpacing mature markets; world trade growing faster than world gross domestic product; and an increase in longevity across the world.
The group has also announced an interim dividend of $0.17 (£0.08) per share in its second dividend announcement for 2007.
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