The health of the European banking sector is currently under intense scrutiny as the 2026 earnings season reveals how the continent's largest credit institutions are coping with macroeconomic fluctuations.
Europe’'s largest bank and the UKHSBC, which ranks among the top two companies by market capitalization in ’'s FTSE 100 index, reported a slight shrink in profits, citing significant credit disruptions linked to the Iran war, although asset management and Hong Kong operations showed resilient growth.
HSBC also saw a decline in its net profit, missing out on some investor expectations despite an increase in overall revenue.
In contrast, Italy made a strong start to the year, surpassing ’'s UniCredit’i market forecasts, leading the bank to upgrade its financial guidance for the rest of 2026.
Last week, Deutsche Bank, Santander and UBS reported increasing profits showing that despite HSBC’'s poor performance, the European banking sector overall remained strong.
This earnings season comes at a time when investors are weighing the impact of the Iran war and the impact of high interest rates on corporate profits in the Eurozone and the United Kingdom’.
HSBC faces geopolitical downsides despite wealth growth
HSBC’'s latest quarterly figures point to a period of strategic recalibration for the global lender.
Profit before tax according to the bank's financial statement clined by 1.1 to $9.38 billion (€8 billion); This result was below the $9.59 billion (8.2 billion euros) forecast by analysts. The main weight on the balance sheet was the increase in credit depreciation expenses, which reached $1.3 billion (€1.1 billion) compared to $876 million (€750 million) in the same period of 2025’.
According to Richard Hunter’, market president of Interactive Investor’, these accusations are a direct reflection of the current global climate.
Hunter, “Credit depreciations have largely wiped out ledgers for this quarter; The lack of a return to the stock buyback program can also be somewhat disappointing, although the return is not far off, ” said.
Hunter said that with HSBC’'s exposure to regional instability becoming visible in the report, the impact of the conflict in the Middle East“, as with many other global banks in this reporting season, also appeared in figures’ said.
Despite these challenges, HSBC’'s orientation towards the Asian asset market continues to attract interest.
Asset management department, in wage income %It reported 18 increases to $2.7 billion (€2.3 billion), while net new money inflows reached $39 billion (€33.3 billion). United Kingdom’ %5’lik and Hong Kong’ %Revenue growth was recorded across all core units, including a 3’ increase.
While concerns about the commercial real estate sector on mainland China continue, the group has marginally raised its all-year target of banking net interest income to $46 billion (EUR 39.2 billion).
UniCredit raises forecast for 2026 after profit growth
Italian UniCredit, in contrast to the more cautious figures of some of its peers, started 2026 with a performance significantly above market forecasts.
Net profit significantly exceeds analyst expectations compared to the same period of 2025’, according to the bank's quarterly update Increased over ’ to EUR 3.2 billion; EPS is almost %It increased by 20 to 2.15 Euro’.
According to the bank's press release, quarterly revenues %Increased by 5 to 6.9 billion Euro’, net revenues increased by %An increase of 3.3 to 6.7 billion Euro, absorbing ’ interest rates, credit loss provisions and Russia-related negative impacts, underlining the flexibility and diversity of a model structured to perform throughout the entire macroeconomic cycle.
The management reacted to this acceleration by raising its financial forecast for the entire year 2026, raising its net profit outlook to “equal or more from the previous estimate of ”approximately €11 billion to “equal or more.
This development strengthens UniCredit’in Europe's position as one of ’'s most influential major lenders.
EU Inbev continues its momentum amid global market changes
In other consumer-related news, the world's largest beer producer AB Inbev, which includes brands such as Budweiser and Stella Artois, has maintained stable revenue momentum, driven global market changes through strategic pricing and beer volume. %It's up 1.2.
The company's revenue is outside its own market. growth in total revenues of mega brands led by Corona’ %With an increase of 8.2’, almost %Six is up.
Income from non-alcoholic beer increased and revenue from Beyond Beer’, the fast-growing category of non-traditional beer alcoholic beverages is up.
While volume growth is under pressure due to inflationary trends in some markets, the company's EBITDA ’ %It remains stable with an increase of 5.3.
According to EU Inbev’e, the group's diversified geographical footprint has allowed it to offset weak demand in some regions with strong growth in emerging markets.
The brewer continues to focus on digital transformation initiatives and direct-to-consumer platforms, which are expected to be key drivers of volume and margin expansion in the rest of 2026’.
