HSBC’s First Half Profit Rises 10%

LONDON - HSBC, Britain’s largest bank, said on Monday that its earnings rose 10 percent in the first half of this year, thanks in part to lower charges for bad loans, especially in the United States.

Profit rose to $14.07 billion in the first six months of this year from $12.74 billion in the same period a year earlier, slightly missing analysts’ forecasts. HSBC’s shares fell 3.4 percent in early trading on Monday in London. Loan impairments fell 35 percent to $3.1 billion during the first half of 2013.

Douglas J. Flint, the bank’s chairman, called the results “solid,” adding that they were a result of “the continuing reshaping of the group and from enforcing appropriate cost discipline.”

Like many of its rivals, HSBC has been closing or selling some operations to reduce costs and improve profitability. Under its chief executive, Stuart T. Gulliver, HSBC has exited 54 businesses worldwide and scaled back consumer lending in the United States, where its 2003 acquisition of the subprime lender Household International has weighed on group earnings.

HSBC said it exceeded its cost-cutting target for this year after saving $800 million in the first half. As part of Mr. Gulliver’s cost-cutting plan, which was announced in 2011, HSBC is reducing about 30,000 positions. The bank also sold its credit card unit in the United States to Capital One Financial and its stake in China’s Ping An Insurance. HSBC would now slow down the pace of its disposals, Mr. Gulliver said.

Provisions for bad loans and other risks in North America fell to $696 million in the first half of this year from $2.2 billion in the same period last year.

Richard Hunter, the head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers in London, said the earnings were “safe and dependable.”

Despite the flawed Household acquisition, HSBC has fared better than some of its European competitors during the financial crisis, which started in 2008, because a large part of its earnings come from faster-growing markets, such as Asia.

HSBC acknowledged Monday that growth in China, Brazil and other developing markets has been slowing recently, but said it was confident that those regions would continue to outpace Europe and the United States.

“Despite slower growth in the short term, the long-term economic trends remain intact,” Mr. Gulliver said. “The global economy will continue to rebalance towards the faster-growing markets and trade and capital flows will continue to expand.”

The bank recently became embroiled in a set of scandals that included the sale of an insurance product to clients who did not qualify for it and a record settlement for charges of money laundering.

HSBC agreed last year to a $1.92 billion settlement with the U.S. authorities over accusations that it transferred billions of dollars for Iran and allowed Mexican drug cartels to move money illegally through its American subsidiaries.