HSBC profits down 6 pct to 20.6 bln USD in 2012

LONDON, March 4 (Xinhua) -- HSBC reported a pre-tax profit of 20.6 billion U.S. dollars for 2012, down 6 percent from 2011.

The profit slide was mainly due to fines from regulators. HSBC was fined 1.9 billion U.S. dollars by U.S. and British regulators for breaking laws against doing business with criminals and regimes, in their case with drugs cartels in Mexico.

Gross revenues rose 7 percent to 63.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, over half of which came from the faster-growing areas.

Its underlying pre-tax profit, which excludes one-time accounting effects and the impact of changes in the bank's creditworthiness, rose 18 percent to 16.4 billion U.S. Dollars. Profits from the commercial banking business hit a record high of 8.5 billion U.S. dollars, up 7 percent from a year earlier.

The bank also set aside a further 1.7 billion U.S. dollars to cover the cost of misselling payment protection insurance (PPI) to mortgage borrowers, bringing the total provisions for PPI claims to 2.4 billion U.S. dollars, as well as 598 million U.S. dollars for misselling interest rate swaps to small businesses.

HSBC raised dividends by 10 percent to 0.45 U.S. dollar per share. Total dividends stood at 8.3 billion U.S. dollars for 2012. HSBC's share price on London Stock Exchange dropped nearly 3 percent in the morning trade on Monday.

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