HSBC, Europe's largest bank, pledged to increase its dividend as strong growth in Hong Kong and other core Asian markets boosted its capital even though annual profit fell short of expectations.The bank on Monday said it made a 2012 pretax profit of $20.6 billion, down 6 percent from the previous year and below the average forecast of $22.7 billion from 28 analysts polled by Reuters. Profits were hurt by a $5.2 billion loss on the value of its own debt.

Source - http://in.reuters.com