HSBC writes down $3.9 billion

HSBC reported $10 billion worth of bad debt charges, including $3.9 billion in mortgage-related write downs today in its earnings call.  The company bet big on the US subprime market during the bubble including the purchase of Decision One and Homecomings and the extension of large lines of credit to subprime mortgage originators.  We should expect to see HSBC take more writedowns on those bad bets in future quarters.

From Market Watch:

HSBC Holdings on Monday reported a 29% drop in first-half net income as bad-debt charges surged to more than $10 billion and write-downs continued to mount, though the banking giant increased its payout as profits in Europe and Latin America grew.

Europe’s largest bank said it wrote down $3.9 billion in its global banking and markets division on mortgage assets, leveraged loans and exposure to bond insurers. The write-downs led to a 35% drop in pretax profit generated by the division, to $2.7 billion.

Loan-impairment charges and other provisions jumped 58% to $10 billion, with the majority of those bad-debt charges stemming from its U.S. business in personal financial services.

Overall, its North American operations reported a $2.89 billion pretax loss, compared to a profit of $2.4 billion in the first six months of 2007.

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