Research Methodology into Ratio Analysis of HSBC Bank

In this project my aim is to analysis the Ratio Analysis to find financial position of the HSBC bank by using the financial tools and also to know the functions of Internet Banking System in HSBC Bank. This study based on financial statement such as Ratio analysis and financial performance. This project helps to identify and give suggestion the area of weaker position of business transaction in HSBC. This study is made to evaluate the Ratio analysis as per trend analysis.

Here I have given the Title, Aim, Objectives of the project, Introduction and background of the company chosen. It also gives the summary regarding the literature review, methodology using for the research, data collection methods and data analyzing procedures.

Introduction:

Finance is very essential for every business to run successfully. To run the business every organization will need financial support.

In our present economy finance is defined as the provision of money at the time when it is required. Every enterprise whether big or small needs finance to carry on its target. In fact finance is so indispensable today. It can be said as blood of an enterprise. Without adequate finance no enterprise can possible accomplish its objectives.

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In the early years of its evolution it was treated synonymously with the rising of funds. In the current literature pertaining to financial management a broader scope so as to include in addition to procurement of funds efficient use of resources is universally recognized.

Nowadays internet is widely used by all sectors of people. Today bank has introduced various facilities through internet. E-Banking is a revolution that changes the banking system around the world. E-Banking is more comfortable for the customers and bank.

Title:

Critically analyzing the ratios of HSBC bank to study the financial performance of bank during 2010-2011 and also study the functions of internet banking system in HSBC bank.

Aim:

To study the financial performance of HSBC bank by analyzing the financial ratio’s from the past five years financial data and also study the role of internet banking system in HSBC bank.

Objective of the study:

To analyze and evaluate the financial performance of HSBC Bank

To study the growth of HSBC in terms of comparative analysis and trend analysis of financial statements for the past five years, from 2006 to 2010.

To study the roles of Internet Banking in HSBC

To review the benefits of internet banking to customer and bank

To make suggestions & recommendations for improving the financial position

Rationale:

Personal Rationale:

As I am a finance student, am very much interested in doing the ratio analysis of the company because of that we can able to know the financial performance of any company. I am very eager to know the financial status of the HSBC bank always. Because this bank is globalized bank, it is in every part of the world. Now it has introduced the lot of facility in Internet banking that benefits the customers. I have the relationship with the bank for the past five years. So, I personally interest in doing with HSBC Bank financial performance and internet banking sector.

Organizational Rationale:

As it is bank, we have wide range of information available in website, articles, journals, magazines and newspapers. HSBC employees are very friendly to their customers. They are always ready to explain their roles of internet banking system. For the financial data, we will able to get the financial statement from their website so there is no lack of information availability.

Policy Rationale:

The system and the procedures followed by the HSBC bank is also one of my interests to choose the HSBC bank. This bank follows the banking rules and regulations given by the government and fair trade practice. That’s make the customer safety banking. In internet banking system, there are many options for doing the transaction easily and safely.

Academic Rationale:

There are more resources available for doing this work. There are many financial books available to elaborate the ratio analysis. We have studied in deep about the ratio analysis and Internet banking system.

IMPORTANCE OF THIS STUDY

The subject matter of financial management is of immense interest for every financial analyzer. It needs special attention because of the complexities involve in managing cash in present day banking function.

The important aspect is the estimation of how much of finance.

The business organization requires and for what purpose.

The most important area of financial management is the working capital management.

Here the study tries to reveal the bank’s position and performance by evaluating the relationship between various components parts of financial statements.

Ration analysis has been taken as a tool in assessing the performance of the company in respect of the following aspects.

Liquidity Position

.Long-term solvency.

Profitability.

Activity.

This study helps to know the usage and the benefits of internet banking system

This study helps to study the functions of internet banking in UK HSBC bank

Literature Review:

1 RATIO ANALYSIS

Ratio analysis is one of the techniques of financial analysis where ratios are used as a yardstick for evaluating the relationship between component parts of financial statements to obtain a better understanding of the firm’s position and performance. It is used as tool by the company or individual to analysis the quantitative performance of the company financial statement.

Meaning

Ratio is relationships expressed in mathematical terms between figures which are connected with each other in some manner. Ratio will be calculated from current year figures and it is compared with previous year in order to know the financial performance of the company.

It is defined as the systematic use of ratio to interpret the financial statements so that the strengths and weaknesses of a firm as well as its historical performance and current financial condition can be determined.

The importance of ratio analysis relies in the fact that it presents facts on a comparative basis

Conclusions can be drawn regarding the liquidity position of a firm. It is useful for assessing the long-term financial viability of a firm. It throws light on the degree of efficiency in the management and utilization of its assets.

It helps in inter-firm comparison and also with industry averages.

Liquidity Ratios:

It is the ratio which is used to determine the company’s capacity to pay its short- period debt obligations. If the value of the ratio is high, then the margin of safety will become high so that the company able to cover its short term debts. Liquidity ratio includes Current ratio, Quick/Acid ratio and Operating cash flow ratio.

Current Ratio

It is a quantitative relationship between current assets and current liabilities and indicates and enterprises ability to meet the current obligation. Current assets refer to liquid resources and must be sufficient enough to pay current liabilities when they mature.

A relatively high current ratio is an Indication that the firm has ability to pay its current obligations in time as and on the other hand a relatively low current ratio represents that the firm shall not be able to pay its current liabilities in time without facing difficulties. An increase in the current ratio represents improvement in the liquidity position of a firm while a decrease in the current ratio indicates that there has been deterioration in the liquid assets of the firm. The ratio equal to the rule of thumb is 2:1.

Quick/Acid Test Ratio:

The ratio is ascertained by company’s liquid assets and current liabilities. Here liquid assets are those assets which are immediately convertible in to cash without much loss. It is also known as liquidity ratio. It shows the ability of the enterprise to meet its short term obligation without sale and collection of inventories.

LeverageRatios:

It is the ratio which is used to calculate the financial leverage of the company inorder to know the methods of financing using by the company and to measure the ability of the company to meet its financial obligations.

Debt-equity Ratio

This ratio indicates the relative proportions of debt and equity in financing the assets of a firm. One approach is to express the debt-equity ratio in terms of the relative proportion of long-term debt and shareholders equity.

The debt considered here is exclusive of current liabilities. It is an important tool of financial analysis to appraise the financial structure of a firm. A high ratio shows a large share of financing by the creditors of the firm, a low ratio implies a smaller claim of creditors.

Interest Coverage Ratio :

These ratios are computed from information available in the profit and loss account. It is also known as time-interest earned ratio. This ratio measures the debt servicing capacity of a firm insofar as fixed interest on long-term loan is concerned. It is determined by dividing the operating profits or earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) by the fixed interest charges on loans.

Proprietary Ratio:

This ratio indicates whether the firm is employing a reasonable proportion of debt or if heavily loaded with debt in which case its solvency is exposed to serious strain. This ratio relates the owner’s/proprietor’s funds with total assets. The ratio indicates the proportion of total assets financed by owners.

PROFITABILITY RATIOS:

This ratio helps to access the ability of business in order to generate the earnings of the business by comparing the expenses and relevant costs during the specific period of time.

Net profit Ratio:

This measures the relationship between net profits and sales of a firm. Depending on the concept of net profit employed.

A high net profit margin would ensure adequate return as well as enable a firm to with stand adverse economic conditions when selling price is declining cost of production is rising and demand for the product is failing. A low net profit merging would have the opposite implications.

Return on Assets:

Thus profitability ratio is measured in terms of this relationship between net profit and assets. This may also be called profit-to-asset ratio.

The concept of net profit may be net profits after taxes net profits after taxes plus interest and net profits after taxes plus interest minus tax savings. Assets may be defined as total assets fixed assets and tangible assets.

Return on capital Employed:

The term capital employed refers to long-term funds supplied by the creditors and owners of the firm. Here the profits are related to the total capital employed. It can be computed as

The capital employed provides a test of profitability related to the sources of long-term funds. The higher the ratio the more efficient is the use of capital employed. A comparison of this ratio with similar firms with the industry average and over time would provide sufficient insight into how efficiently the long-term funds of owners and creditors are being used.

Debtor turnover ratio:

Debtor turnover ratio indicates the number of times the debtors are turned over during the year. Generally if the value of debtor turnover is high, then there is more efficient in the management of debts and sales.

OTHER RATIOS

Fixed Assets Ratio

This ratio relates the net assets and the long-term funds. Here the ratio should be high. That is the handling of fixed asset should be greater than the long-term funds at an appropriate level.

E-Banking:

Electronic banking system is the system that allows the individual to do the banking activities by sitting in one place. Electronic funds transfer means doing the financial transactions electronically. This is used for the number of different activities like electronic payments and card transactions where the holder makes payment by using their credit or debit cards.[Brain Dixon and Mary Dixon 2006]

Internet banking is also called as online banking, it is an outgrowth of PC banking. Internet banking uses the internet as the delivery channel for conducting banking activity, it is used for the purpose of transferring funds, paying bills, helps to checking and saving account balances, paying mortgages and also help to purchase financial instruments.[Benton E Gup 2005]

According to Richard H Baker, advancement in technology helps to develop the system of internet banking.

According to industry analysts, internet banking provides many facilitiies

Able to access the banking at any time

World wide connectivity

Very easy to access the information by transacting data

“Direct customer control of international movement of funds without intermediation of financial institutions in customer’s jurisdiction

According to the report of Global Market for Internet Banking, more than 172 banks in Europe are running the internet banking system and they are very successful in running online banking.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH

Research is a process in which the researcher wishes to find out the end result for a given problem and thus the solution helps in future course of action. The research has been defined as “A careful investigation or enquiry especially through search for new facts in branch of knowledge”

RESEARCH DESIGN

Redman and Mory (1923) defined research as a “systematic effort to gain new knowledge” According to Clifford Woody “research comprises defining or redefining problems, formulating hypothesis or giving solutions, collecting, organizing, evaluating the data, making deductions and reaching conclusions and at carefully testing the conclusion to determine whether they fit the formulating hypothesis”

The research design used in this project is Analytical in nature the procedure using, which researcher has to use facts or information already available, and analyze these to make a critical evaluation of the performance.

With particular reference to working capital management, for the prosecution of the study, both the primary and secondary data.

DATA COLLECTION METHOD:

Primary Data:

Primary data is the information collected by the researcher in first hand. This data is collected by the researcher inorder to analysis the research. Primary data is collected from the field organization selected that is from the employees, customers and observing the real life situations. The main benefit of the primary data is collected only for the specific study so it is more relevant to the study. But there is disadvantage for the collection of primary data it involves more cost and time. It is not suitable for short term study. Primary data for this proposal will be collected from the employees and customers of HSBC bank inorder to know how they run the internet banking system and the functions and benefits of internet banking system in HSBC bank. Primary research may be quantitative and qualitative research. Qualitative research is the method where the researcher set the questionnaire which will give to large number of respondents (Hair, Wolfinbarger, Ortinau, and Bush, 2008, p81). Based on the responses the data will be analysed. In this study, questionnaire will be given to the customers and employees of HSBC bank to analyse the data regarding the functions of Internet Banking.

Secondary Data

Secondary data is the information which is collected already and it is used for some other studies by different researcher. This data not only used for the current study. The sources of secondary data are books, journals, articles, newspapers, internet, government, corporate reports and library. The advantage of this data it is easily available and also very cheap compared to primary data. In this study we are using secondary data for the analyses of ratio in order to know the financial performance of HSBC bank.

From the annual reports maintained by the company.

Data are collected from the company’s website.

Books and journals pertaining to the topic.

Research Approach:

There are two types of research approaches Inductive and Deductive approaches. Inductive approach is the approach that starts with specific objectives and become generalized. It begins by identifying the issue by observation or being informed.

Deductive approach is the approaches where the conclusions derived from the situation. It begins with general situation and ends by identifying the specific issue. Arguments based on the rules, laws and regulation will be using deductive approaches and the argument based on the observations will be using the inductive approaches.

SAMPLING PROGRESS

Sampling:

It is the process of choosing small number of people for doing the research from the large population. That sample group will be tested, analyzed by assuming that sample group represents the entire group (Crouch, S. and Housden, M., 1996, p116).

Sampling Unit

In this research the target populations are the customers of HSBC Bank Alperton Branch. The sizes of the sampling will be 100 customers. Sampling type will be random choosen among the large population group. From the total sample size the study will be done for the 10 customers and 5 employees of HSBC bank.

Ethnography procedure will be used for analyzing the data based on the data collection method. In this method it takes account of words, context and non-verbals.

STATISTICAL TOOLS

Tool for Data Collection

Questionnaire will be used as a tool for data collection as it provides the advantages of allowing the respondents to answer at their convenience and faster data collection. The questionnaire explicitly stated the purpose of study as academic and assured confidentiality of information solicited from the respondent.

Percentage method

This method is used in making comparison between two are more series of data. Percentages are used to describe relationship. Percentages can also be used to compare the relative terms, the distribution of two or more series of data.

The data collected through questionnaire response method was analyzed in the following manner:

Raw data will be coded and tabulated and the tabulated data will be converted into percentages, to show the percentage of opinion among respondents.

Percentage analysis thus involves the simple interpretation / analysis of the various items taken up in the questionnaire on a percentage basis from the data collected. Interpretations of the graphs also include mean scores obtained by the organization on every aspect / item as calculated.

Number of respondent

Percentage of Respondents = ­­­­­­­­­­___________________________________ * 100

Total number of people questioned

Weighted average method

Weighted average method is defined as an average whose component items are multiplied by certain value (weights) and the aggregate of the products are divided by the total of weights

In the Weighted Average Method, the weighted average can be calculated by the following formula

K XW = ε WX/ εX

Here

XW represents the weighted average

“X1, X 2, X3………….Xn” represents the value for variable values

“W1, W2, W3 …………Wn” represents the weight age given to the variable.

Steps:-

Multiply the weights(W) by the variables(X) to obtain WX

Add all WX to obtain εWX

Divide εWX by sum of the weights (εX) to get weighted average.

Correlation:

Correlation is the techniques of determining the degree of correlation between two variables in case of ordinal data where ranks are given to the different values of the variables.

Spearman’s coefficient of correlation (or)

1 – 6 ∑di ²

r = _____________

n (n² – 1)

TOOLS OF ANALYSIS

Ratio Analysis.

Comparative Balance Sheet.

Trend Analysis

Conclusion:

This dissertation proposal starts with the introduction of finance, and helps to know the importance of finance for banking sector. The researcher will work towards the financial ratios of HSBC bank from the sources of annual reports, financial statements like balance sheet in orer to know the financial position of HSBC bank and analyze the role of internet banking in HSBC by getting the data from the bank customer and employees.