(31 July 2007 – UK) British banking giant HSBC has posted a profit before tax of US$14.16 billion, an increase of 13 percent for the half year to end of June.The result was built on good growth in Hong Kong and Asia Pacific and a strong performance from the bank’s investment banking business.
However, the bank was still impacted by bad debts in the sub-prime mortgage sector in the US.
HSBC’s bad debts for the first half of the year sat at US$6.35 billion, up 63 percent on last year’s figure of US$3.89 billion.