
HSBC has seen first-quarter profits miss expectations after taking a 1.3 billion dollar (£960 million) hit on bad debts including a fraud-related charge in the UK and impact from the Middle East war.
The UK-based lender reported pre-tax profits of £9.4 billion US dollars (£6.96 billion), down slightly from 9.5 billion (£7 billion) a year earlier, but lower than forecast.