HSBC has offered further hope for the battered banking sector as it said pre-tax profits were "well ahead" in the first three months of the year.
The banking giant added that while bad debt charges were higher than a year earlier, they were lower than the previous quarter and slightly below levels expected in the US - a key market given its exposure to sub-prime lending.
HSBC - which has so far avoided turning to the Government for rescue funds - saw record results in its investment banking business.
It hailed a "resilient" first quarter, confirming that steps taken by governments to ease the financial crisis had begun to work, but offered a cautious outlook amid continued recession pressure.
HSBC reported more hefty bad debt charges at its struggling US consumer lending business HSBC Finance - at 3.9 billion US dollars (£2.6 billion) - although this was lower than it expected.
Its strength in other areas, such as Asia and commercial and investment banking, helped revenues recover from the previous quarter, according to HSBC.
But its profits received a one-off boost from rising values of its own corporate debt as bond markets improved, with pre-tax profits coming in lower than a year earlier with this stripped out.
It also posted further writedowns on investments and assets, with another 900 million dollar (£595.6 billion) hit from the first quarter.
HSBC said it was too early to see any "green shoots" in terms of an economic recovery, despite an increase in consumer confidence.
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Michael Geoghegan, chief executive of HSBC, said: "There may be some spring bounce, but the reality is that people are concerned about employment and are not yet sure if they want to make financial commitments."
