Pre-tax profit more than doubled at HSBC in the first six months of the year as bad debts fell to the lowest level since the start of the financial crisis and its investment banking division revealed a surprisingly resilient performance. Group pre-tax profit rose to $11.1bn from $5.02bn a year ago. HSBC was profitable in every region except the US, where it posted a loss of around $80m. Richard Stovin-Bradford analyses the latest results from the UK and Hong Kong-listed bank.