Fortis; HSBC

Fortis, Belgian financial services firm that bought ABN Amro for $36 billion last year...

Q2 net income -49%; CEO Herman Verwilst: "The environment has become more difficult and will probably remain that way.

That refers to the more pessimistic outlook on the economy in general,

the impact of the credit turmoil continuing for the sector and also to the acceleration of inflation in Europe
."

HSBC, Europes biggest bank, which became the biggest subprime mortgage lender in the U.S. after it bought Household International for $15.5 billion in 2003...

Q2 net income -29% as pretax loss in North America was $2.9 billion, vs profit of $2.4 billion.

U.S. consumer bad loan charges and other provisions rose 85% to $6.8 billion. HSBC wrote down $3.9 billion in credit assets against first- half earnings.

The markdowns included buyout loans, asset-backed securities and bond insurance. That compares with writedowns of $2.1 billion in the second half of last year.

Comments