Spare a thought for Hongkong Bank chairman John Strickland. He has been having a pretty tough time this week trying to work out the difference between US$1.8 billion and $2.5 billion.
Mr Strickland was not mincing his words on Wednesday, telling a press briefing that the HSBC Group has a $2.5 billion exposure to the troubled Indonesian market.
However, this figure had magically shrunk by $700 million in just one day.
A press release put out by HSBC yesterday stated that the group's exposure to Indonesia was, in fact, $1.8 billion, and not $2.5 billion.
The clarification did everything, however, to disguise the fact that the wrong figure had been announced by the Hongkong Bank boss.
Amazingly, Mr Strickland was not even mentioned in yesterday's release, despite his apparent $700 million over-estimate.