Britain's largest bank, HSBC, has written off $17.2 billion in bad debt after the U.S. housing market slide hit the value of its loans in 2007. The annual loss is the largest reported amongst Britain's big five mortgage lenders.

英國最大的銀行匯豐銀行在美國的房地產市場2007年出現下滑對銀行的貸款價值造成沖擊之后不得不注銷172億美元的壞帳。這是英國五大房屋貸款提供商所報告的年度損失中最大的一個。

The record HSBC write off is larger than the next four British banks combined.

匯豐銀行創記錄的壞帳沖銷比另外四家英國銀行注銷的壞帳總和還要多。

HSBC Chairman Stephen Green admits the global financial system had come under what he calls 'extreme strain' in 2007.

匯豐銀行的董事長王志浩(Stephen Green)承認，全球金融體系在2007年經歷了“極度的沖擊”。

As to 2008, he says the outlook is uncertain, but he warns the economic slowdown and the credit difficulties in the United States may get worse before getting better.

至于2008年，他說，前景還不確定，但是他警告說，美國經濟的減緩和信貸困難在好轉之前可能會更加惡化。

Despite the massive write down due to the U.S. credit problems, gains elsewhere around the world kept HSBC in profit.

盡管由于美國的信貸問題而導致大規模的資產縮水，匯豐銀行在全球其他地方的表現仍然使它出現盈利。

Market analyst David Buik from the London brokerage firm BGC Partners says wise choices outside of the U.S. more than covered the debt damage.

BGC合伙人公司(坎特-菲茲杰拉德金融公司所設的合伙企業)在倫敦的市場分析師布伊克表示，在美國以外地區做出的明智選擇所獲利潤超過了在美國的債務損失。

"Strong in Asia; China, India and also other emerging nations and a terrific presence in the United Kingdom as well and this is why unlike the other banks, particularly Royal Bank of Scotland and to a lesser degree Barclays, they produced such a stellar set of number for the second half of the year where profits were up by 17 percent," he said. "Whereas everybody else has been scuttling around trying to work out these provisions for bad debt, HSBC has done that but despite it, managed to do very well."

他說：“亞洲的表現非常強勁，像中國、印度和其他新興經濟體，另外英國的表現也相當不錯。這就是為什么與其他銀行不同，特別是相對于蘇格蘭皇家銀行以及一定程度對于巴克萊銀行，匯豐銀行在去年下半年創造了一系列引人注目的數字，利潤上漲了17%。而其他銀行還一直在到處張羅，試圖為這些壞帳找到解決辦法。匯豐銀行已經完成了這一步，而且盡管存在這種情況，它還能有很好的表現。”

For the year in total, HSBC profits rose 10 percent to $24.2 billion.

在去年全年，匯豐銀行的利潤上漲了10%，達到242億美元。

Given the problems in the U.S. market, HSBC is restructuring its operations there. It has reduced the amount of credit it extends and it is closing about 400 of its U.S. branches.

對于美國的問題，匯豐銀行正在對那里的運作進行改造。它減少了銀行的貸款數量，而且正在關閉大約4百家美國分行。

In other banking news, Britain's Barclays Bank announced Monday that it has agreed to buy Russia's Expobank for $745 million. Expobank has 32 branches mostly in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Subject to regulatory approval, the deal is expected to be completed by midyear.

在其他的銀行業新聞方面，英國的巴克萊銀行星期一宣布，它同意以7億4千5百萬美元購買俄羅斯的出口銀行。出口銀行擁有32家分行，這些分行大部分集中在莫斯科和圣彼得堡。如果得到監管機構的批準，這筆交易預計在今年年中會完成。