HSBC confident can maintain dividend, exceed cost targets - CEO

HONG KONG (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings Plc is confident it can maintain dividend payouts in the foreseeable future and expects to exceed risk-weighted asset and cost-saving targets, the bank's chief executive Stuart Gulliver said on Monday.

Despite earnings pressure, HSBC has retained its dividend payout ratio at a higher level in the last few years, at a time when some of its peers including Standard Chartered withheld dividend payment for 2016.

The bank may have to move "some thousand roles" from Britain to Paris depending on how the country's Brexit negotiations with the European Union unfold, chairman Douglas Flint added. The bank had previously said it expected to move around 1,000 roles.

Both executives were speaking during a meeting of shareholders in Hong Kong.

(Reporting by Michelle Price; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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