The Australian banking business of HSBC managed to lose money in almost the most remote place possible during 2008, taking an unspecified hit from "an exposure to an Icelandic bank".The detailed financial statements for HSBC Plc, published late yesterday, do not shed any more light on the episode. HSBC plans to publish some additional commentary on its Australian business today.Losses from investments in Iceland's banking system - not that much remains of it - provide a degree of colour to the upheavals of international finance in 2007 and 2008. Three of Iceland's banks - Glitnir, Kaupthing Bank and Landsbanki - fell under government control last year after incurring dire losses.When not losing money in careless ways HSBC was making plenty of it in Australia. Pre-tax profit in Australia and New Zealand for HSBC increased to US$176 million in the year to December 2008 from US$124 million in 2007.Return on assets, using the pre-tax profit, increased to 1.9 per cent in 2008 from 1.1 per cent in 2007.Profit from consumer finance more than halved, measured in US dollars, to US$19 million in 2008 from US$41million in 2007. The bank cited higher loan impairments from the "maturing of the credit card portfolio and volume growth" as reasons for the lower profit.Profit from commercial banking increased to US$68 million from US$37 million while profit from global markets increased to US$102 million from US$42 million.