HSBC profit nearly halves due to coronavirus outbreak

Bank says outlook for world economies 'has substantially worsened in the past two months'

HSBC profits nearly halved in the first quarter, after the bank was forced to put aside $3bn (2.4bn) to help cover potential defaults by customers impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak.

The loan loss provisions were far worse than the $1.8bn expected by analysts and $2.4bn higher than than the same period last year, as the economic outlook deteriorated across key markets including Hong Kong and the UK. It sent pretax profits tumbling by 48% to $3.2bn for the three months to March.