HSBC Holdings has a new management team, so perhaps an upbeat 2010 results announcement was never in the cards. The UK bank reported pretax profit below expectations at $19.1bn, rising costs and a lower return-on-equity target of 12%-15% to reflect new regulatory requirements. The shares duly fell 4.7%, but for those inclined to see the glass as half-full, HSBC is still one of Europe's more promising banks.

Sure, this wasn't a conventional kitchen-sink job by new chairman Douglas Flint and chief executive Stuart Gulliver. The bad-debt charge was actually lower than expected, particularly in the US, where HSBC finally made a profit.