HSBC may be optimistic with this forecast:

HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC) doesn’t expects loan losses at its Latin American operations to peak until the middle of the year as the region faces headwinds from the global economic downturn in the coming months, a top executive said Thursday.

“I think in the next six months we are going to see more pain in the real economy,” said Emilson Alonso, President of HSBC Latin America, in an interview at the Mexican Banking Association’s annual conference in Acapulco.

HSBC spent billions of dollars on acquisitions in Latin America earlier in the decade that established the group as one of the largest banks in the region, with more than 4,000 branches in 16 countries.

Latin America is a major profit center for HSBC, with the region accounting for 21.9%, or $2.04 billion, of the group’s pretax profit last year. Results were skewed by hefty losses at its North American operations.

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