LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings Plc apologized and said it deeply regretted past conduct and compliance failures at its Swiss private bank as it reported a 17 percent drop in annual profit on Monday.
Europe's biggest bank said recent disclosures about past practices and behavior at its Swiss private bank - where it has been accused of helping clients dodge taxes - reminded it of "how much there still is to do" at the bank.
HSBC said it was cutting its target for return on equity to "more than 10 percent".
It reported a pretax profit of $18.7 billion for 2014, down from $22.6 billion the year before and below the average analyst forecast of $21 billion.
(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Matt Scuffham)
