HSBC ordered to pay out $2.5bn after losing lawsuit

HSBC has been ordered to pay out $2.46bn by a US court after it lost a class action lawsuit against Household International, the lender it bought pre-crisis.

The lawsuit, filed in 2002, alleged Household, its chief executive, chief financial officer and head of consumer lending made false and misleading statements that inflated the company’s share price. HSBC also claimed Household artificially boosted its share price by engaging in predatory lending and hid the poor quality of its loan portfolio and its financial accounting from March 2001 to October 2002, the FT reports. HSBC bought Household International in November 2002 for $14bn, a year after reports first emerged of the US lender’s allegedly dubious lending practices. It was HSBC’s ...