So how does HSBC do it?

[Churchill]

care to elaborate?

53Deg 29'20.43" N
01Deg 29'20.55" W

Have fun with the fireworks.

[Mailman]

HSBC are doing very poorly to only do £6bln more than RBS. They are a considerably larger operation.

Maybe HSBC are doing crap?

HSBC profit £12.1
RBS £10.3billion
Barclays £7billion
HBOS £5.4billion
Lloyds £4billion

Also, profits posted in 2007 also show a similar gap between all the main players so I cant see HSBC being able to outperform their competitors by such a large margin.

Perhaps HSBC has something to fear now RBS is a much bigger beast to compete against?

Mailman