HSBC earmarks £236m for forex probe

The provision takes the total for the UK major banks so far to more than £1bn after Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland said last week that they were putting aside £500m and £400m respectively.

HSBC has also added 701 million US dollars (£438.9m) to its bill for customer redress in the UK, including for the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI).

The company’s reported profits for the three months to September 30 were two per cent higher at 4.61 billion US dollars (£2.88bn).

Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the US Department of Justice, and other US authorities, are investigating banks over the forex claims that are the latest scandal to hit global banks.

Six banks are reported to be in discussions over a settlement on the affair before the end of the year. In recent days, Switzerland’s UBS set aside 1.8 billion Swiss francs (£1.2bn) and America’s Citigroup has taken a 600 million US dollar (£375m) hit to cover regulatory and litigation issues.

HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver said: “The third quarter was a period of continued progress. Excluding significant items, we increased underlying profit before tax in all of our global businesses and maintained a strong balance sheet and a robust capital position.”