Its UK mortgage book grew by around £1.7bn between June and September, which it said was due to its focus on broker-originated mortgages.
HSBC added that it now had access to 88 per cent of the UK mortgage broker market and 45 per cent of completions came through this channel, up from 35 per cent in Q3 2018.
However, the bank also announced a steep fall in its global profits and revenue, warning the economic environment was “more challenging” and that growth would be “softer” than expected.
Reported profit before tax was down 18 per cent to $4.8bn with revenue down three per cent to $13.4bn and profit attributable to ordinary shareholders down 24 per cent to $3bn.
As a result, it appears a restructuring may be on the cards as HSBC noted: “We will act to rebalance our capital away from low-return businesses and adjust the cost base in line with the actions we take.”
It added: “Addressing low-return businesses and reducing risk-weighted assets (‘RWAs’) will allow redeployment of capital and resources into higher growth and return opportunities.”
The bank saw its net interest margin dip six basis points to 1.56 per cent from the previous quarter on a global basis – three basis points of which was related to customer redress programmes in the UK.
UK mortgage book
HSBC noted that around 27 per cent of its mortgage book was based in Greater London, it held £2.9bn worth of buy-to-let mortgages, with a further £2.9bn of mortgages on a standard variable rate and £18.9bn of interest-only mortgages.
Around 47 per cent of its loans had a loan to value (LTV) of below 50 per cent, with an average LTV of 52 per cent, while new originations had an average LTV of 66 per cent.
