Britain's leading bank HSBC reported Monday a pre-tax profit of 21.9 billion U.S. dollars for 2011, up 15 percent from a year earlier.

The report highlighted strong performance in faster-growing markets including Asia, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa. These areas, accounting for 49 percent of HSBC's total revenue, saw a 12-percent rise last year.

Profit in commercial banking hit a record high of 7.9 billion U.S. dollars, up 36 percent year on year.

HSBC said its net interest income in 2011 totaled 40.7 billion U.S. dollars, 3 percent higher than in 2010, while net operating income rose by 6 percent to 72.3 billion U.S. dollars.

HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver said "2011 was a year of major progress for HSBC" and emphasized that "there is a lot more to do and we remain focused on delivering our targets."

The London-headquartered bank announced to cut 30,000 jobs last year and aimed to save 2.2 billion pounds (about 3.5 billion U.S. dollars) by 2013.