In the UK amounted to $ 2.1 billion profit – an increase of 26%. The British banks Lloyds other, Barclays and RBS are due to report its results later this week. In a sign of improving conditions in the banking sector, he said the amount of money set aside to cover bad loans had set, down by $ 7.5 billion – the lowest level since the financial crisis began in 2008.

In contrast to Lloyds and RBS, HSBC will survive the financial crisis without direct government support. But the chancellor George Osborne yesterday to calls for banks to lend more to businesses to support economic recovery. HSBC chief executive Michael Geoghegan said that his bank had the appetite for credit risk is growing steadily in the first half of the year saw, especially business customers. “This is now by feeding in credit growth, a trend we expect to continue,” he said.

Globally, the Bank’s lending increased by 4% from the second half of 2009, with Asia will see a 15% growth in lending. In the UK amounted to £ 5.1 billion mortgage loans for the first half of the year, said HSBC, while the bank has about EUR 1.4 billion in new loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, paid on a net basis, taking into account existing loans back, and is considered an important measure, HSBC lending to small businesses in the UK fell by 2%.

In December, HSBC said that there were only 10 account holders from the theft, which has been affected to happen three years ago.

The stolen information relates to 15,000 accounts that are still active. A further 9000 accounts have been closed since the theft.

HSBC says that it does not think that the data be used to access accounts.

“We deeply regret this and I apologize unreservedly to our customers for this threat to their privacy,” said Alexandre Zeller, chief executive of HSBC Private Bank (Suisse).

“We are determined to protect the interests of our customers and take all necessary measures to do, active contact with all our customers with headquarters in Switzerland accounts,” he said.

The former employee, Herve Falciani, HSBC, which fled into the IT department was working to France, during the investigation in Switzerland.

French authorities later seized the data, and then it went to the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office.

Switzerland Finance and Banking said it was “into being the formal administrative proceedings against HSBC” about the vulnerability created, adding that the stolen data was “very strong”.

HSBC, the first experiences a data breach in December 2008, said that unless it invested 100 Swiss francs ($ 93.3m, £ 62.3 million) to update and improve the security of their information systems.

Mr. Zeller said, however, it was “still unclear how Falciani managed to steal the data.”

He said that HSBC was only known about the extent of the leak after the Swiss authorities, the information from France and alerted the bank on 3 March had.

HSBC said that the account holder based in several European countries, including Britain.

Evasion

News of the theft will try than in the U.S. and some countries in Europe, against the tax evasion through the use of foreign accounts.

In recent years there has been pressure on Switzerland and Liechtenstein held for more transparency on the accounts there.

This will probably steal led to a certain bank employees and bank details of the tax authorities have gone.

In Germany, an anonymous informer offered to sell stolen information from an unnamed Swiss bank, tax officials.

Germany previously purchased similar stolen data about customers of a bank in Liechtenstein. Some of this information have been the tax authorities in Britain, which is also thought to be paid for the data transferred.

French tax authorities are thought to be the investigation of up to 3,000 of its nationals with bank accounts outside the country.

The authorities have defended the payment for stolen data than in the public interest. However, the practice has been heavily criticized.

The British Revenue & Customs (HMRC) office paid approximately £ 100,000 for information on their taxpayers with bank accounts in Liechtenstein, according to accountants UHY Hacker Young.

“Paying criminals to steal information from banks is very questionable,” said the company’s tax partner Roy Maugham.

“If people know that there will be a market for these data, it is in the expectation that HMRC tax-stealing or other authority over a six-figure sum of hand,” he said.