Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements
This Form 6-K contains certain forward-
looking statements with respect to HSBC’s:
financial condition; results of operations and
business, including the strategic priorities;
financial, investment and capital targets; and
ESG ambitions, targets and commitments
described herein.
Statements that are not historical facts,
including statements about HSBC’s beliefs
and expectations, are forward-looking
statements. Words such as ‘may’, ‘will’,
‘should’, ‘expects’, ‘targets’, ‘anticipates’,
‘intends’, ‘plans’, ‘believes’, ‘seeks’,
‘estimates’, ‘potential’ and ‘reasonably
possible’, or the negative thereof, other
variations thereon or similar expressions are
intended to identify forward-looking
statements. These statements are based on
current plans, information, data, estimates
and projections, and therefore undue reliance
should not be placed on them. Forward-
looking statements speak only as of the date
they are made. HSBC makes no commitment
to revise or update any forward-looking
statements to reflect events or
circumstances occurring or existing after the
date of any forward-looking statements.
Written and/or oral forward-looking
statements may also be made in the periodic
reports to the US Securities and Exchange
Commission, summary financial statements
to shareholders, offering circulars and
prospectuses, press releases and other
written materials, and in oral statements
made by HSBC’s directors, officers or
employees to third parties, including financial
analysts.
Forward-looking statements involve inherent
risks and uncertainties. Readers are
cautioned that a number of factors could
cause actual results to differ, in some
instances materially, from those anticipated
or implied in any forward-looking statement.
These include, but are not limited to:
–changes in general economic conditions in
the markets in which we operate, such as
new, continuing or deepening recessions,
prolonged inflationary pressures and
fluctuations in employment levels and the
creditworthiness of customers beyond
those factored into consensus forecasts;
the Russia-Ukraine war and the conflict in
the Middle East and their impact on global
economies and the markets where HSBC
operates, which could have a material
adverse effect on (among other things) our
financial condition, results of operations,
prospects, liquidity, capital position and
credit ratings; deviations from the market
and economic assumptions that form the
basis for our ECL measurements (including,
without limitation, as a result of the Russia-
Ukraine war and the conflict in the Middle
East, inflationary pressures, commodity
price changes, and ongoing developments
in the commercial real estate sectors in
mainland China and Hong Kong); potential
changes in HSBC’s dividend policy;
changes and volatility in foreign exchange
rates and interest rates levels, including the
adverse effect of the recent decline in
HIBOR and the accounting impact resulting
from financial reporting in respect of
hyperinflationary economies; volatility in
equity markets; lack of liquidity in wholesale
funding or capital markets, which may
affect our ability to meet our obligations
under financing facilities or to fund new
loans, investments and businesses;
geopolitical tensions or diplomatic
developments producing social instability or
legal uncertainty, such as the Russia-
Ukraine war or the conflict in the Middle
East (including the continuation or
escalation thereof) and the related
imposition of sanctions, export-control and
trade restrictions, supply chain restrictions
and disruptions (including as a result of any
potential further escalation of the conflict
between Iran and Israel), sustained
increases in energy prices and key
commodity prices, claims of human rights
violations, diplomatic tensions between
China and the US, which may extend to and
involve other countries and territories, and
developments in Hong Kong and Taiwan,
alongside other potential areas of tension,
which may adversely affect HSBC by
creating regulatory, reputational and market
risks; the efficacy of government,
customer, and HSBC’s actions in managing
and mitigating ESG risks, in particular
climate risk, nature-related risks and human
rights risks, and in supporting the global
transition to net zero carbon emissions,
each of which can impact HSBC both
directly and indirectly through our
customers and which may result in
potential financial and non-financial impacts;
illiquidity and downward price pressure in
national real estate markets; adverse
changes in central banks’ policies with
respect to the provision of liquidity support
to financial markets; heightened market
concerns over sovereign creditworthiness
in over-indebted countries; adverse
changes in the funding status of public or
private defined benefit pensions; societal
shifts in customer financing and investment
needs, including consumer perception as to
the continuing availability of credit;
exposure to counterparty risk, including
third parties using us as a conduit for illegal
activities without our knowledge; the
discontinuation of certain key Ibors and the
transition of the remaining legacy Ibor
contracts to near risk-free benchmark rates,
which continues to expose HSBC to some
financial and non-financial risks; and price
competition in the market segments we
serve;
–changes in government policy and
regulation, including trade and tariff policies,
as well as monetary, interest rate and other
policies of central banks and other
regulatory authorities in the principal
markets in which we operate and the
consequences thereof (including, without
limitation, actions taken as a result of
changes in government following national
elections and the trade policies announced
by the US and potential countermeasures
that may be adopted by countries, including
in the markets where the Group operates);
initiatives to change the size, scope of
activities and interconnectedness of
financial institutions in connection with the
implementation of stricter regulation of
financial institutions in key markets
worldwide; revised capital and liquidity
benchmarks, which could serve to
deleverage bank balance sheets and lower
returns available from the current business
model and portfolio mix; changes to tax
laws and tax rates applicable to HSBC,
including the imposition of levies or taxes
designed to change business mix and risk
appetite; the practices, pricing or
responsibilities of financial institutions
serving their consumer markets;
expropriation, nationalisation, confiscation
of assets and changes in legislation relating
to foreign ownership; the UK’s relationship
with the EU, particularly with respect to the
potential divergence of UK and EU law on
the regulation of financial services; changes
in government approach and regulatory
treatment in relation to ESG disclosures and
reporting requirements, and the current lack
of a single standardised regulatory approach
to ESG across all sectors and markets;
changes in UK macroeconomic and fiscal
policy, which may result in fluctuations in
the value of the pound sterling; general
changes in government policy (including,
without limitation, actions taken as a result
of changes in government following
national elections in the markets where the
Group operates) that may significantly
influence investor decisions; the costs,
effects and outcomes of regulatory
reviews, actions or litigation, including any
additional compliance requirements; and
the effects of competition in the markets
where we operate including increased
competition from non-bank financial
services companies; and
–factors specific to HSBC, including our
success in adequately identifying the risks
we face, such as the incidence of loan
losses or delinquency, and managing those
risks (through account management,
hedging and other techniques); our ability to
achieve our financial, investment, capital
and ESG ambitions, targets, and
commitments (including the positions set
forth in our thermal coal phase-out policy
and our energy policy and our targets to
reduce our on-balance sheet financed
emissions and, where applicable, facilitated
emissions in our portfolio of selected high-
emitting sectors), which may result in our
failure to achieve any of the expected
outcomes of our strategic priorities;
evolving regulatory requirements and the
development of new technologies,
including artificial intelligence, affecting
how we manage model risk; model
limitations or failure, including, without
limitation, the impact that high inflationary
pressures and interest rates have had on
the performance and usage of financial
models, which may require us to hold
additional capital, incur losses and/or use
