LONDON, May 7 -- HSBC announced Wednesday that its pretax profits were 6.79 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2014, 20 percent lower compared to the same period a year earlier.

Underlying profits before tax also fell to 6.62 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2014, down 13 percent from a year ago, the British bank said.

Earnings per share and dividends per ordinary share for the first quarter of 2014 were 0.27 dollar and 0.10 dollar respectively, compared with 0.34 dollar and 0.10 dollar in 2013.

"In the first quarter, we maintained control of costs and further demonstrated our capital resilience. Whilst revenue was lower than the previous year's first quarter, which benefited from a number of specific items, we have seen progress in revenue over the trailing quarters," said Stuart Gulliver, the group's chief executive.

"Global banking and markets had a relatively good performance and we grew our market share in several product categories. Commercial banking saw revenue growth but, in our principal retail banking and wealth management business, revenues were impacted by changes in incentive plans and product pricing," he added.

HSBC Holdings Plc, the parent company of the HSBC Group, is headquartered in London. The group serves customers worldwide from over 6,300 offices in over 75 countries and regions.