The health of the European banking sector is currently under intense scrutiny as the 2026 earnings season reveals how the continent's largest lenders are handling macroeconomic volatility.
The largest bank in Europe and a top-two company on the UK's FTSE 100 index by market capitalisation, HSBC, reported a slight contraction in profits citing significant credit impairments linked to the Iran war, even as its wealth management and Hong Kong operations showed resilient growth.
