Investing.com – HSBC stock (NYSE:) traded 0.7% higher in Monday’s premarket as the Asia-focused bank blew past third-quarter estimates and announced an up to $2-billion share buyback.

Driving the company’s doubling of profits in the September quarter was the release of reserves as the economy improved and so did the customer profile. As the expectations were for smaller defaults to decrease, the bank was more positive about its financial position. The bank was able to release $700 million. As asset quality improves, the bank stated that it will release additional funds in the current quarter.

The bank joined American competitors JPMorgan (NYSE 🙂 and Bank of America(NYSE :), which also benefited greatly from an improving economy, which allowed them to release emergency funds.

It was able to ignore concerns over property issues in China and bad loans related to the pandemic. China’s property industry has received $19.6 million from the bank. The Evergrande Group, which is currently in debt of $300 billion, was not affected by this loan. There is no last word yet on the fate of the real estate developer, once China’s biggest by assets.

Revenue from commercial banking increased while revenue from wealth and personal banks fell by 3%. Revenue at HSBC’s investment banking unit also fell 3%, including a 46% fall at global debt markets — a drop the bank attributed to last year’s strong result. Another reason was the bank’s decision to pull back some from deploying as much capital as it would otherwise.

HSBC reported a $4.2 billion net profit for its quarter, compared with $2 billion a previous year.

The September quarter last year saw revenue rise to $12.2 billion from $11.9.