HSBC has seen first-quarter profits miss expectations after taking a 1.3 billion dollar (£960 million) hit on bad debts including a fraud-related charge in the UK and impact from the Middle East war.

The UK-based lender reported pre-tax profits of £9.4 billion US dollars (£6.96 billion), down slightly from 9.5 billion (£7 billion) a year earlier, but lower than forecast.

The fall came as it announced an unexpected 400 million dollar (£295 million) loss linked to a fraud case ‌in the UK, relating to loans made to a private equity firm, which in turn had exposure to a private-credit firm in its corporate and institutional banking (CIB) business.

HSBC did not disclose the companies involved.

Fellow UK bank Barclays last week announced an £823 million provision for bad debts in its first-quarter results.

This was largely driven by a £228 million impairment charge related to the collapse of UK property lender Market Financial Solutions (MFS) earlier this year amid allegations of fraud.

There are increasing…