08-03-2010, 12:38 PM
LONDON (Agencies): HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, reported a first-half profit leap to 6.76 billion dollars on Monday saying it had slashed bad debts in the United States and raised earnings in emerging markets. The net profit of 6.76 billion dollars (5.17 billion euros) for the six months to June 30 was more than double the equivalent figure of 3.34 billion dollars last year. "As we focus on building a high quality asset base for the future, it is encouraging that loan impairment charges now stand at their lowest levels since the start of the financial crisis," HSBC chief executive Michael Geoghegan said in the earnings release. "They almost halved overall, reducing by 6.8 billion dollars to 7.5 billion dollars year-on-year. "This reflects the benefit of more stable economic conditions for many of our customers and follows our actions, begun before the crisis, to reduce exposure to unsecured lending outside our key relationships, to exit unprofitable business lines and to tighten underwriting standards for new business," Geoghegan added. In remarks in Hong Kong, where he is based, he said that emerging markets and mainland China would continue to be the bank's priority for investments. "US will remain weak for some time and hence HSBC will continue to focus on the emerging markets," he told a press conference. Peter Wong, the bank's chief executive for the Asia-Pacific region, said they were confident that China would continue to be the key driver of economic growth for a long time, despite concerns that its growth would slow down.