It’s boom time for bank profits: when will savers share the good times?

HSBC has reported a doubling of profits – after years of miserable returns for savers, customers have a right to feel resentful writes James Moore

MPs and activists have criticised the UK banking sector after HSBC became the latest bank to report surging profits (Lucy North/PA) (PA)

Britain’s supermarkets made an early bid to be the corporate villians in the eyes of the public as our collective economic pain deepened. But the banks – reporting hugely rising profits – are showing themselves to be far better candidates.

The latest to report, HSBC, said pre-tax profits for the first half of the year more than doubled to $21.7bn (£16.9bn) following a similarly bouyant set of numbers from NatWest last week. That’s a neat trick. How do they pull it off?

HSBC’s numbers were boosted by some one-off gains, such as the rescue of the UK arm of the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank, which has been working out well. But key to its, and NatWest’s, surging earnings are the surging margins they have benefited from.