As banks around the world run into difficulties, with many having to be bailed out by governments, the HSBC Group continues to prosper during the present “credit crunch”.

As the world’s largest bank by market value, and with one of the highest capital ratios in the world, HSBC is outperforming its peers, particularly in the present turmoil.

The UK government has bailed out three high street banks: Lloyds TSB, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and HBOS, forking out £37 billion. HSBC’s UK subsidiary had no need to use the capital being made available by the UK government and was the first bank to fulfil the agreed commitment to increase total tier 1 capital. HSBC Holdings made a £750 million capital injection from its own resources into its UK banking subsidiary. The UK government will not own any of HSBC, which remains the UK’s only major, fully independent high street bank. HSBC is a bank with 80 per cent of its business outside the UK.

HSBC has also been active in the British interbank market in recent days, coming to the rescue of other banks struggling with the ongoing financial crisis.

The international press have welcomed HSBC’s financial strength, with The Independent newspaper going so far as to say that HSBC is among the safest places in which to keep savings.

HSBC Bank Malta CEO Alan Richards said: “HSBC welcomes yesterday’s further actions taken by governments worldwide to support the banking system, which help the process of rebuilding trust between banks.

“The banking system in Malta is in good shape, although the consequences of a pronounced world economic recession is bound to leave its mark on the local economy.”