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LONDON (Alliance News) - HSBC Holdings PLC Monday reported a rise in third-quarter pretax profit, despite a jump in operating expenses due to more than a billion pounds' worth of charges and provisions for matters including UK customer redress and UK regulators' investigations into alleged manipulation of the foreign exchange market.
In a statement, HSBC, which is the largest London-listed bank by market capitalisation, said it made a USD4.61 billion pretax profit in the quarter ended September 30, compared with USD4.53 billion in the corresponding period last year.
However, operating expenses increased to USD11.09 billion from, USD9.58 billion, as it set aside USD701 million in provisions for UK customer redress, including a further USD589 million for possible mis-selling in previous years of payment protection insurance policies, citing an increase in the level of overall claims driven by claims management companies.
It also took a charge of USD378 million relating to the "estimated liability" in connection with the ongoing foreign exchange investigation by the UK Financial Conduct Authority, following similar moves by US and UK peers.
HSBC also booked a USD550 million charge in the US relating to a settlement agreement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
HSBC shares were Monday quoted down 1.9% at 627.438 pence.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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