It is a measure of the severity of the crisis that HSBC executives talk of “signature financial strength” with a straight face. This is a bank that has just relieved shareholders of $17.8bn in Britain's biggest rights issue and lost $23bn in its US consumer finance arm in 2007 and 2008. It yesterday invited shareholders to celebrate the fact that HSBC Finance's first-quarter losses, excluding gains and losses on its own debt, were about 9 per cent better than the fourth quarter. (Never mind that this quarter's loss, of $3.4bn, was five times wider than that of the same period last year.)
汇丰(HSBC)高管面无表情地谈论“标志性的财务实力”，反映出此次危机的严重程度。这家银行刚刚通过英国规模最大的配股发行，减轻了股东178亿美元的负担，而在2007年和2008年，其美国消费者金融子公司亏损230亿美元。昨日，该公司邀集股东共同庆贺：汇丰金融第一季度不含自身债务损益的亏损环比收窄约9%。（别去想当季34亿美元的亏损，是上年同期的6倍。）