Good morning: HSBC has reported a 65 per cent fall in pre-tax profits after a jump in bad debts because of the Covid-19 crisis. Half-year figures from Britain’s largest bank by stock market value look worse this morning than analysts had feared and shares in HSBC have fallen by as much as 4 per cent during trading in Hong Kong. HSBC has reported pre-tax profits of $4.3 billion for the first half of 2020, down from $12.4 billion in the same period last year. Revenues fell 9 per cent for the bank but profits were further dragged down by impairments. HSBC booked “expected credit losses and other credit impairment charges” — ie bad debts — of $6.9 billion.

Source: The Times August 03, 2020 08:03 UTC