HSBC announced in June it would cut its global workforce by up to 50,000 and sell off its businesses in Brazil and Turkey to cut costs.
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The bank on Monday said the review is progressing, and that while it had been targeted to finish by the end of this year, “this is a self-imposed deadline that can be moved should the Board require further work to be performed”.
The cost of dealing with past misconduct and regulatory penalties was down $1.4 billion year-on-year, as its spending on compliance began to bear fruit.
The 32 percent rise in pre-tax profits beat analysts’ estimates, who had forecast a figure of $5.2 billion for the third quarter.
While profits were up sharply, overall revenue dipped 4% to 14 billion United States dollars, which Mr Gulliver attributed to the stock market correction in Asia. Revenue was down compared to the third quarter of 2014.
HSBC shares fell 0.6 percent to 504.60 pence at 8:16 a.m.in London.
The bank is also looking at possibly moving its headquarters away from Britain but said there was a “considerable amount of work still to do” before a decision is made.
At the retail banking and wealth management division, adjusted pretax profit fell to $1.5 billion from $2.1 billion a year earlier. We remain focused on reducing our risk-weighted assets quickly and efficiently.
This largely reflected a net favorable movement in significant items compared with a year ago, principally a reduction in fines, settlements and United Kingdom customer redress, as well as the favorable effects of currency translation between the periods, HSBC said.
It agreed in June to pay Geneva authorities 40 million Swiss francs ($41 million) to settle a money-laundering investigation at its Swiss private bank.
According to HSBC, despite slowing growth in the mainland Chinese economy and market volatility in Asia, the quarter saw no visible impact on its Asian credit quality.
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Chief executive Stuart Gulliver said: “Our cost-reduction measures are beginning to have an impact on our cost base”.
