Net profits of Hong Kong local banks fall 18.6% in 2021

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority said that the pre-tax net profit of local banks fell 18.6% overall in 2021. This is due to the decrease in net interest and non-interest income and operating expenses, resulting in a drop of 0.50% in the return on assets H2, compared to 0.61% in the same period in 2020. Last year, the retail banks' overall operating profit before tax decreased by 18.6% compared with 2020, while the return on assets decreased from 0.77% to 0.59%. The proportion of household debt in GDP rose slightly from 92.1% to 93.1% in the last six months of 2021 brought about by the increase in household debt, which pushed up 4.1 percentage points, but was partly offset by nominal GDP growth.