HSBC has had a particularly good year in the United States and China

HSBC has revealed a 37% rise in pre-tax profit to ￡9.6bn ($17.6bn) for 2004.

Much of the profit has been made abroad by the global bank, which operates in the UK, Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Chairman Sir John Bond said 2004 was "another good year for HSBC", which generates nearly a quarter of its earnings in the UK.

The profits come against a background of record earnings for UK banks and complaints from consumer groups that they are making "excess" profits.

Earlier this month, Barclays reported pre-tax profits of ￡4.6bn, up 20% on the year before.

This was followed a couple of weeks later by Royal Bank of Scotland, which reported a 14% rise in annual pre-tax profits to nearly ￡7bn.

Barclays' chief executive John Varley said at the time that the bank had "caught the winds" of a very strong world economy.

HSBC's Sir John also described the economic climate as "favourable" when speaking to the BBC on Monday about HSBC profits - which are the biggest recorded by any UK bank.

He said he did not think UK banks made too much money from their customers.

"We are in 77 countries and our UK profits are no different from profits in other markets," he said.

"We make 24% of our profits in the UK but it accounts for 32% of our salary base."

Sales at the company rose 23% to ￡26.29bn, benefiting from the company's acquisition of US consumer lender Household in March 2003.

The 2004 results also included 10 months of contribution from Bank of Bermuda, which HSBC acquired a year ago.

Sir John also acknowledged the contribution of China to the bank's profits.

"We think the Chinese growth story is a very impressive one," he said.

"It has 21% of the world's population and accounts for just 4% of the world's gross national product; I think that will soon change."

(Agencies)

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