Credit crunch hits HSBC's profits
Britain's biggest bank HSBC said profits so far this year had suffered after it took a further hit from the financial crisis.
The group said pre-tax profits in the nine months to September were below last year, although it added that third-quarter profits were higher than a year ago.
Its battered investment banking business took a 600 million US dollar (£383m) credit crunch writedown, while it also saw bad debts in its US business rise by 700 million dollars (£447.5m) over the quarter to 4.3 billion US dollars (£2.75bn).
