HSBC has taken a $1.3bn (£961m) hit to profits, fuelled by the fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran and fraud in the troubled private credit sector . The London-headquartered bank said profits fell 4% in the first three months of the year, dropping $100m to $9.4bn, compared with the same period in 2025. Revenue increased 6% to $18.6bn. The profit decline was linked to a jump in the potential losses it could see on soured loans to $1.3bn, which included $300m specifically linked to the impact of the conflict in the Middle East. HSBC also reported a $400m “fraud-related, secondary, securitisation exposure” in the UK, related to its investment banking division. The bank’s chief financial officer, Pam Kaur, explained that the charge involved loans that HSBC had made to an unnamed private equity group, which was then exposed to private credit-related loans.…