March 03, 2009

Bank giant HSBC on Monday blamed 'failings' in the banking industry as a whole for the global financial crisis which has pushed the world economy into its worst economic downturn in decades.HSBC reported that its 2008 net profit plunged 70 percent because of the collapse of the US subprime or higher-risk home loan market whose failure sparked the subsequent worldwide credit crunch.

"The industry has done many things wrong," said HSBC Chairman Stephen Green in comments accompanying the earnings release under the heading 'Failings in the banking industry.The banks have been devastated in the fallout from the mid-2007 credit crunch amid fears about their exposure to complex derivative investments backed by weak subprime loans that have gone bad.