HSBC's US write-offs hit $51m a day - papers 4 Mar

Strong results unveiled in almost every other part of HSBC yesterday were overshadowed by the US sub-prime business, which wrote off $11.7bn in dud loans last year and said the situation was still deteriorating. Write-offs in HSBC Finance, almost all of them because of US sub-prime business, have risen from $1.89bn in the first quarter to $2.19bn in the second, $3.48bn in the third and $4.63bn in the fourth. The quantity of loans more than two months in arrears has also soared during the four quarters, from $7.4bn to $12.5bn. DRAX, THE OWNER OF EUROPE’S biggest coal-fired power station, ...