Company: HBCYF
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001089113-25-000040
Chunk: 18

Company: HSBC HOLDINGS PLC
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form: 20-F
Chunk 18
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B. – Customer accounts rose by $43bn on a reported basis, and $75bn on a constant currency basis, with growth across all of our global businesses, primarily in Asia. – Common equity tier 1 (‘ CET1’) capital ratio of 14.9% rose by 0.1 of a percentage point, mainly due to capital generation and a reduction in RWAs through strategic transactions, offset by dividends, share buy- backs and organic balance sheet growth. – The Board has approved a fourth interim dividend of $0.36 per share, resulting in a total of $0.87 per share in respect of 2024, inclusive of a special dividend of $0.21 per share. We also intend to initiate a share buy- back of up to $2bn, which we expect to complete by our first quarter 2025 results announcement.

Outlook – We have announced measures to simplify the Group and w e are focused on opportunities that build on our strong platform for growth. – We are now targeting a mid-teens return on average tangible equity (‘RoTE’) in each of the three years from 2025 to 2027 excluding notable items, while acknowledging the outlook for interest rates remains volatile and uncertain, particularly in the medium term. – We expect banking NII of around $42bn in 2025. Our current expectation reflects modelling of a number of market-dependent factors. If changes in these factors impact the output of our modelling, we would update our expectation for 2025 Banking NII in future quarterly results announcements. – We retain a Group-wide focus on cost discipline. We are targeting growth in target basis operating expenses of approximately 3% in 2025 compared with 2024. – Our target basis operating expenses for 2025 excludes the direct cost impact of the business disposals in Canada and Argentina, notable items and the impact of retranslating the prior year results of hyperinflationary economies at constant currency. – Our cost target includes the impact of simplification-related saves associated with our announced reorganisation, which aims to generate approximately $0.3bn of cost reductions in 2025, with a commitment to an – annualised reduction of $1.5bn in our cost base expected by the end of 2026. To deliver these reductions, we plan to incur severance and other up-front costs of $1.8bn over 2025 and 2026, which will be classified as notable items. We are focused on opportunities where