LONDON - HSBC, Britain’s biggest bank, said Monday that earnings in the third quarter rose 10 percent from the same period last year, helped by its cost-reduction program.
The London-based bank also was the latest to admit that it was the subject of an investigation by several authorities into its conduct in the foreign exchange market.
The bank said its pretax profit rose to $5.1 billion in the three months until the end of September from $4.6 billion in the same period last year.
The bank’s chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, said he was optimistic that the global economic recovery would continue to strengthen. “We see reasons for optimism with some evidence of a broadening recovery,†he said in a statement. There were signs that growth in China was stabilizing and that the United States and Britain would continue to grow, he said.
HSBC said on Monday it had cut another $400 million of costs in the third quarter, bringing the total to $4.5 billion since the beginning of 2011. HSBC set aside $1.6 billion for bad loans and other credit charges in the period, less than the $1.7 billion for the third quarter of 2012. HSBC shares rose 0.8 percent in early trading in London on Monday. The shares have gained 7.2 percent this year.
