Bucking the prevailing trend of falling profits and loss of investor confidence amongst European fund managers in a very uncertain market place, HSBC recorded some impressive results last year and saw considerable increases in both new money and profits through 2002.

The bank's client assets increased to CHF86.6 billion ($62.4 billion) by the end of last year, with profits up to CHF218.5 million ($157 million) from CHF180.8 million ($130 million) in the period from April to December 2001. These figures compare favourably with the 14.6% decline in profits experienced by the rest of the private banking sector last year, according to Datamonitor.

Much of the bank's success has been attributed to a growing focus on alternative investments, in addition to a sales drive in the previously untapped areas of South America, Africa and the Middle East which brought it an extra CHF4 billion in net new money. The transfer of existing clients from Singapore, Hong Kong and Nassau in 2001 also helped boost the figures.

Using its strong foothold in the Swiss market and exploiting the increasing popularity of hedge funds amongst wealthy investors, the bank plans to introduce four new Swiss-registered hedge funds aimed at high net worth individuals in the near future.