HSBC's global private banking business posted a year-on-year profit increase in the first quarter of 2020, as earnings collapsed within the global bank's other divisions.

HSBC's chief executive Noel Quinn said the bank was nonetheless "pausing the vast majority" of redundancies relating to a major restructure it had announced in February. The restructure had aimed to which was reduce the bank's headcount by 35,000, to around 200,000.

Mr Quinn said the pause was to protect the well being of employees. It wa...