Its profits in the UK were £593 million in the first six months of the year. The bank made a profit in every region with the exception of North America.

HSBC has said these results were helped by a substantial fall in the number of people defaulting on their loans. According to the bank, bad debts are now at the lowest level since the credit crunch set in.

During the same period, Lloyds Banking Group recorded profits of £1.6 billion compared with a loss of £4 billion in 2009.

Brits get into debt for holidays

More than two million people are borrowing money to pay for their summer holidays, a new survey has revealed.

Insolvency body R3 has revealed 2,329,500 people are prepared to borrow as much as £1,130 to finance their vacations.

On average, holidaymakers will take up to seven months to pay off this debt.

Northern Rock 'bad bank' in profit

Northern Rock's so-called 'bad bank' recorded a pre-tax profit of £349.7 million for the first six months of 2010 compared with a loss of £724.2 million in the same period last year.

The 'bad bank' (or Northern Rock Asset Management) is largely made up of mortgages and unsecured loans. Experts have attributed this shift to the low interest rate environment which helps borrowers to keep up with repayments.

Conversely, the 'good bank' side of the business posted a loss of £140 million during this period.

As the government ended its 100 per cent savings guarantee, customers withdrew almost £2 billion in deposits.

RBS fined for anti-terror shortcomings

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has received a fine of £5.6 million for neglecting to ensure customers were not involved in terrorism and money laundering.

This is the largest fine of its type imposed by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) - although RBS qualified for a 30 per cent reduction for agreeing to settle early in the investigation.

The FSA found RBS had failed to adequately screen their customers' transactions for links to terrorist organisations in 2007 and 2008.

UK's worth slips £94bn

The country's total wealth fell by £94 billion last year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The ONS has calculated that the total value of all Britain's financial assets was £6.67 trillion in 2009 - down by 1.4%.

This was the second consecutive year the figure had fallen. Prior to this, it had risen every year since 1992.

Santander snaps up RBS branches

Spanish banking group Santander will buy 318 branches from RBS, it was revealed this week.

The package includes 311 RBS branches and seven NatWest branches. The sale will give Santander a market share of 8 per cent within the UK.

The sale was necessary to be meet EU rules on competition following the government bailout of RBS and is expected to be complete by the end of 2011.

Bank holds interest rates

The Bank of England has voted to freeze interest rates at 0.5% for the 18^th consecutive month.

Many experts argue this freeze is necessary as the economy continues its recovery and the government cuts public spending.

Earlier in the month, economic forecaster the Ernst and Young ITEM Club stated that interest rates would need to remain at this level until 2014 to counteract the coalition's spending cuts.