Bank giant HSBC said on Wednesday that its net profit slid 18 percent in the first quarter as lower revenues offset cost-cutting, but added that bad debt charges fell.
Profit after tax stood at $5.069 billion (3.64 billion euros) in the three months to the end of March.
That compared with $6.211 billion in the first quarter of 2013, the British bank said in an earnings statement.
"In the first quarter we maintained control of costs," HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver said in the statement.
He added that "revenue was lower than the previous year's first quarter, which benefited from a number of specific items" and said that "loan impairment charges fell".
Revenue dropped 8.0 percent to $15.71 billion, while pre-tax profit was down 20 percent at $6.785 billion.
The Asia-focused lender is pushing on with its savings programme, having announced last year plans to cut costs by a further $2.0 billion to $3.0 billion between 2014 and 2016.
HSBC shares were trading down 1.13 percent at 597.3 pence in the wake of the earnings update on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was showing a loss of 0.36 percent at 6,774.15 points by mid-morning.
"With the exception of Commercial Banking, all (HSBC) units have found the going tough as has been the case for many of its global competitors," Richard Hunter, head of equities Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers said following the update.
"More positively, impairments fell, the capital cushion remains robust and, from an investment perspective, the dividend yield of 5.1 percent is attractive given the current interest rate environment.