UNSTOPPABLE global bank HSBC today revealed a 37 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £9.6 billion as a leading union called for strike action.

Much of the profit, the biggest recorded by any bank in the UK, has been made abroad, it emerged this morning.

More than 1,000 HSBC employees are based in Southampton, including the regional headquarters at the Nelson Gate high-rise offices in Commercial Road and plush quarters in Ocean Village.

At the same time as HSBC released its annual results for 2004, trade union Amicus threatened to hold a strike ballot among 20,000 clerical workers at the bank in a dispute about pay and bonuses.

A one-day stoppage may be timed to coincide with HSBC's annual meeting in May. It would be the first industrial action at the bank in eight years.

Amicus' national officer Rob O'Neil said: "These massive profits will mean yet another bonanza for shareholders and the boardroom but no such luck for the staff."

He called for employees to be given an "equitable share" of the profits in the same way as HSBC does for shareholders and boardroom members.

Chairman Sir John Bond said 2004 was "another good year for HSBC", which generates one-fifth of its earnings in the UK.

Sir John put the increase down to recovery in the US and "remarkable progress" in China.

HSBC's profits beat the £8.1 billion announced by rival Royal Bank of Scotland, which employs 800 in and around Southampton, last week.

The next of the big five banks to report will be Halifax and Bank of Scotland group HBOS.

Stockbroker Charles Stanley is predicting HBOS, another big employer in Southampton, will post pre-tax profits of £4.6bn on Wednesday, up from £3.98bn last time.