HSBC Bank Australia suffered a 34 per cent fall in earnings in the six months to June, after writing off a large corporate debt.HSBC reported yesterday that its local operation made a pre-tax profit of A$87 million in the June half, compared with a pre-tax profit of $132 million for the previous corresponding period.The commercial banking division made a pre-tax loss of $33 million, compared with a profit of $32 million in the previous corresponding period.HSBC Bank Australia's chief executive, Paulo Maia, said: "Commercial banking was impacted by a single, large corporate impairment relating to a long-standing customer in Australia."It is important to note it is not a trend, [there was] was no specific industry and [it was] not related to anything structural." The global banking and markets division made a pre-tax profit of $77 million for the half year, which was a 13.2 per cent increase on the previous corresponding period.Retail banking and wealth management increased its pre-tax profit by 42.8 per cent to $50 million. The mortgage book grew 2.4 per cent to $9.3 billion in the half, the personal loan book grew six per cent and customer deposits grew by 3.4 per cent.The bank has been on a branch expansion push during the past couple of years, but there were no openings during the half year.Maia said: "We have refurbished key locations and secured new sites for additional locations. We'll open two branches in the coming months."HSBC's parent, HSBC Holdings plc, which has been caught making numerous breaches of its anti-money laundering obligations, reported that it had set aside US$1.3 billion in customer redress provisions and US$700 million of provisions for "law enforcement and regulatory matters".The AML scandal relates to compliance with various US regulations, including anti-money laundering laws, the Bank Secrecy Act and the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions. The regulations apply to transactions settled in US dollars, and because the dollar is the world's reserve currency these transactions take place all over the world.Asked whether the local business was caught up in the scandal, Maia said: "We're introducing global standards, which specify that the highest standard required in any country must apply to every part of the group."