Meanwhile, the parent bank, in a statement issued to the London Stock Exchange today ahead of a presentation to investors, said it is targeting "additional sustainable costs savings of $2-3 billion". 

As far as the Monaco business was concerned, the bank said late yesterday:  HSBC “confirms that it is conducting a review of its operations in Monaco, HSBC Private Bank (Monaco), as part of the HSBC Group’s continuing strategic five-filter review. Following recent unsolicited expressions of interest, this may lead to the possible disposal of the business. Further announcements will be made if or when necessary”.

The bank made no further comment on the matter and did not disclose where the “unsolicited expressions of interest” came from.

HSBC, both at private bank and group level, has sold off some non-core assets. For example, last October, the private bank sold Property Vision Holdings to its management team.

As reported earlier this month, the private banking segment of HSBC recorded a pre-tax loss of $125 million in the first three months of 2013, a sharp decline compared to its profit of $286 million from a year ago, and its profit of $230 million from the previous quarter. The bank's cost/efficiency ratio surged, standing at 127.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2013 compared to 71.1 per cent in December 2012, and 64.8 per cent in March of the same year.

“The first quarter loss for global private banking was caused by a number of one-off items, notably the write-off of goodwill on some non-strategic assets. Excluding the impact of these one-offs, profit before tax was marginally lower than the last quarter of 2012. Assets under management were broadly stable compared with end of December 2012,” global head of communications Médard Schoenmaeckers, told this publication on 7 May.

In December last year, HSBC named Peter Boyles as its new chief executive of global private banking.