LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's biggest bank HSBC Holdings said its profit in the first quarter was ahead of a year earlier as growth in Asia and elsewhere helped counter another big hit for bad debts on U.S. home loans.

HSBC said on Monday its bad debt charge related to its U.S. consumer finance business was $3.2 billion for the first quarter, down from $4.6 billion in the previous quarter but double the level of the first quarter of 2007 as problems in the subprime housing market work through its loan book.

HSBC said its underlying revenue growth in the first quarter was comfortably ahead of a year ago, even after absorbing a $2.6 billion write-down in its global banking and markets investment banking unit.

(Reporting by Steve Slater)

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