Mexico and to a lesser extent Brazil were HSBC's (NYSE: HBC) Latin American countries most affected by impairment of consumer credit balances in the third quarter following lending growth in recent years, the UK bank said in a press release.
The trend also affected the bank's Asia-Pacific region - which includes the Middle East and Africa - as portfolios seasoned and economic growth slowed.
Residential mortgage exposure in Latin America and in the rest of Asia-Pacific is small in group terms and well secured, the bank said.
HSBC said underlying pre-tax profit in Latin America, Asia and Europe for the nine months ended 30 September was ahead of the comparable period in 2007 and strongly capital generative, but did not provide figures.
Going forward, HSBC said emerging markets will be affected by reduced export demand and by slowing direct foreign investment.
HSBC's Latin American operations posted a US$1.27bn pre-tax profit for the first half, a 27% rise on the same period in 2007, or 12.3% of the group's total.
HSBC's Latin American operations had US$117bn in assets at June 30.
Europe's biggest bank said global pre-tax profit in the third quarter rose despite US$4.3bn in US loan impairments.
HSBC said its tier one capital ratio was 8.9% as of September 30.
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