HSBC has reported a 32% rise in third-quarter profit, in results released on 27 October, the day before the Budget. Campaigners are using the figures to call for a windfall tax on banks.
Brit Brief puts the quarterly profit at £7.2bn. Streamline Feed gives a pretax figure of $9.6bn. The two figures are consistent at an exchange rate of about $1.33 to the pound.
The Mirror's headline figure of £900 a second is in line with £7.2bn earned over a three-month quarter, which works out at about £905 a second.
The Mirror also reports that banking chiefs have launched a last-ditch effort to persuade the Chancellor, John Healey, to drop a rumoured rise in the bank surcharge. Bloomberg and the Guardian have reported that he is weighing raising the surcharge from 3% to 8%.
The Treasury has not confirmed any change to the surcharge.