HSBC Private Bank reported lower fees in the first three months of this year as the value of assets under management declined and as investors showed less appetite for structured products, the bank, which is listed in Hong Kong and London, said yesterday.

The bank’s interim management statement for the first quarter of this year gave few other indications of how well the private banking operation has performed so far this year, however.

For the group as a whole, HSBC said it had made a “resilient” start to 2009, seeing a strong recovery in revenues compared with the fourth quarter of 2008 and “record” results in global banking and markets divisions. It said group costs held flat overall.

It said that “Asia remained our strongest region and at the heart of our operating profitability”.

During the quarter, HSBC generated capital which was ahead of the run rate achieved in the second quarter of 2008 and more than covered the first interim dividend of $0.08 per ordinary share.

HSBC said its financial position has been strengthened by the completion of a rights issue in early April, which raised $17.8 billion net of expenses.

At the end of March, 2009, HSBC had a Tier 1 core capital ratio of 8.6 per cent.