Mon May 12, 6:49 AM ET LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's biggest bank HSBC Holdings (HSBA.L) said its profit in the first quarter was ahead of a year ago as growth in Asia helped counter over $5 billion in hits from bad debts on U.S. home loans and asset writedowns.HSBC said it was increasingly likely the United States economy will go into recession this year and a recovery in the U.S. housing market was unlikely until at least 2009, but its trading statement was more positive than those from many banks battered by the credit crunch.
The bank said on Monday its bad debt charge related to its U.S. consumer finance business was $3.2 billion for the first quarter and it wrote down almost as much for a deterioration in the value of risky assets.
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