BEA reports its lowest cost-to-income ratio since 2007

It fell 530bp sequentially to 54.2% in 1H13.

According to Bernstein, BEA booked operating expenses of HK$4.51 billion in H1 '13.

This was down 1% from H2 '12 levels and up 8% over H1 '12. BEA's cost reduction efforts showed in H1 2013 as its group level cost-to-income ratio fell by 530bp sequentially to 54.2%.

Here's more from Bernstein:

Excluding the impact of volatile trading and other securities-related income, the bank's H1 '13 cost-to-income ratio still declined by a greater 740bp.

This marks the lowest cost-to-income ratio recorded at BEA since before the global financial crisis, in 2007.

BEA's Management attributed this improvement partly to its Outlet Repositioning Program carried out by BEA China, which aims to optimize branch functions/locations to achieve higher cost efficiency.