HSBC Reports Gains In Q3 Profits

JANE WARDELL

LONDON (AP) — Banking group HSBC Holdings PLC said Tuesday that pretax profit for the third quarter was "significantly ahead" of the same period last year and that losses on U.S. consumer loans had shrunk for the first time in three years.

The upbeat trading update from HSBC, one of the few British banks to shun a multibillion pound government bailout, sent its shares 3.3 percent higher to 714.9 pence ($11.94) in London morning trade.

While the statement lacked detailed figures, HSBC said that its global banking and markets division was having a "record year" and that commercial banking was "solidly profitable in all regions" over the first nine months.

Overall profitability for the first nine months of 2009 was stronger than it had forecast at the start of the year, as positive trends experienced in the first half continued into the third quarter, it added.

HSBC Chief Executive Michael Geoghegan said loan impairments had fallen to their lowest quarterly level for more than year, driven by stabilized credit performances in the United States.