Hong Kong / AFP HSBC shares rallied on Monday in a positive response to quarterly profit results after the British banking giant underwent a radical cost-cutting exercise. In the three months to September its adjusted pre-tax profit — which strips out one-off items and unfavourable currency movements — rose seven percent from a year earlier to $5.59 billion, beating …

  Bloomberg Tesco Bank, the lending arm of the UK’s biggest grocer, said it suspended online transactions after about 20,000 customers had money fraudulently taken from their accounts. About 40,000 of the bank’s 136,000 checking account holders experienced suspicious transactions over the weekend, Tesco Bank Chief Executive Officer Benny Higgins told BBC Radio 4’s Today program. About half of those …

  Sydney / AFP Australian banking giant Westpac posted a seven percent slide in annual net profit on Monday on the back of market headwinds and impairment charges but said it was well positioned with a strong balance sheet. Westpac’s Aus$7.45 billion (US$5.72 billion) result in the year to September 30 rounded out annual reporting from three of the nation’s …