HSBC Profits Double to $6.8 Bil.

British bank HSBC Holdings PLC said Monday that its first-half net profit more than doubled to $6.76 billion as provisions for bad loans in the U.S. fell by nearly half.

Europe’s largest bank in terms of deposits said its profit for the first six months of the year compared to $3.35 billion a year earlier.

Operating income was $35.55 billion, up 2.3 percent. It did not report quarterly figures.

The bank said provisions for bad loans and other credit risks amounted to $7.5 billion, the lowest since the outbreak of the global financial crisis and down from $13.9 billion a year earlier.

The improvement was driven by a reduction in the HSBC Finance portfolio, formerly the U.S.-based Household International, which operated the Beneficial and Household Finance brands, which HSBC acquired in 2002. That acquisition made HSBC the biggest subprime mortgage lender in the United States.

The bank said it trimmed $10 billion from its balances in those portfolios in the first half, to a total of $69 billion.

HSBC said it was profitable in every region except North America, where it reported a pretax loss of $80 million on an underlying basis. Still, that was $2 billion better than a year earlier, the bank said.

By region, HSBC said pretax profit in Asia was up 20 percent to $5.6 billion; up 36 percent to 900 million in Latin America; down 39 percent in the Middle East to $393 million and up 19 percent in Europe to $2.8 billion.

Investors welcomed the results, and HSBC shares were up 4.8 percent at 676.7 pence on the London Stock Exchange following the release of the report.

“Today’s numbers underline the overall strength of the bank, whilst the dramatic reduction in the loan impairment provision is an additional bonus,” said Richard Hunter, head of UK equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers.

HSBC is the first of Britain’s major banks to report first-half earnings this week.

LONDON (AP)