Paulo Maia assumes the helm at HSBC Bank Canada on Jan. 7.Ryan Carter/The Globe and Mail
Over the eight years since Lindsay Gordon took the reins at HSBC Bank Canada, the country's seventh largest bank doubled its annual profits.
HSBC's annual profits jumped to $749-million from $353-million between 2004 and 2012, according to Capital IQ. Such growth isn't industry leading – TD, for instance, has almost tripled its earnings over the same period. But it's certainly solid, in line with Royal Bank of Canada and HSBC's closest competitor in the Big Six, National Bank of Canada, whose latest annual profit amounted to about $1.5-billion, up from $725-million in 2004.
HSBC's asset growth has been just as, if not more, impressive. In 2004, Mr. Gordon oversaw about $40-billion in assets. That figure is $82-billion today, and the bank's loan book has grown to $44-billion from $28-billion during his reign. The caveat, however, is that asset growth has stalled over the past few years, averaging about 3 per cent since the financial crisis.
Despite the slower growth, return on equity has remained high. Last quarter it came in at 15 per cent, and remained in the double digits in the worst of the financial crisis. That, in part, is because HSBC never waded into anything too exotic and mostly kept to core retail and commercial banking.
Mr. Gordon will be replaced in January by Paulo Maia, the head of HSBC in Australia, a country with an economy that runs on many of the same fundamentals as Canada's. After he steps down, Mr. Gordon will take a seat on HSBC France's board of directors.
Tim Kiladze