HSBC plans to boost its technology spend to 21% of its operating expenses by 2025 as the bank experiences increased digital usage across its banking channels.

“We’ve continued to invest heavily in technology, spending around $6 billion in 2021, which is equivalent to 19% of our adjusted operating expenses,” HSBC Group Chief Financial Officer Ewen Stevenson said during Monday’s fourth-quarter earnings call.

The $2.96 trillion global bank’s investment “provides us with significant operating leverage and is enabling us to deploy solutions at scale and further leverage cloud technology,” Stevenson said.

While a breakdown of current and future technology spending was not provided, Chief Executive Noel Quinn gave insights into the balance of the bank’s tech investments.

“I think more and more of our technology is going into the re-engineering space and less into the care and maintenance,” Quinn said. “A significant proportion of our investment, so over 50%, is going into the re-engineering activities of the bank.”

The focus on digitalization and automation will bring savings and efficiency, Stevenson said.

“We’ve got a big move to put our reporting into a single data set on the cloud and run all our reporting engines off the cloud. We think that can reduce operating and financial costs 25% to 30% over the next three to four years,” he said.

Financial results

Adjusted profits in 2021 increased 79% YoY to $21.9 billion, while adjusted revenues decreased 3% YoY to $50.1 billion. Trade balances hit $83.8 billion, a 23% increase YoY. Earnings per share clocked in at $0.62 cents, shooting up 223% from the previous year.

Ninety-seven percent of HSBC’s transactions were fully automated, with automated credit and loan systems processing $15 billion in personal loans, according to the earnings report. Payments through the HSBCnet mobile app increased 58% YoY to 9 million, while 84% of trade transactions were initiated digitally. Forty-three percent of the bank’s retail customers are mobile active, growing 5% YoY to approximately 17.2 million users.

Shares of HSBC [NYSE: HSBC] were trading at $37.09, up 0.76% from market open.

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