Company: HBCYF
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001089113-25-000040
Chunk: 30

Company: HSBC HOLDINGS PLC
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form: 20-F
Chunk 30
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 and our network. It has the products and skills required to serve the global banking needs of international corporate clients, particularly in transaction banking where we continue to invest. This positions us to better capture global and intra- regional flows as supply chains reconfigure, new trade routes emerge, economies grow, and customers’ expectations of financial services evolve. The future economy will require financing and investment in sectors such as advanced technologies, specifically digitalisation, computing and generative AI, as well as clean energy and healthcare. CIB is well positioned to facilitate this by helping entrepreneurs to secure the capital they need to build the businesses of the future and by supporting our customers as they look to decarbonise. International Wealth and Premier Banking (‘IWPB’) is ideally placed to capture the increasing number of affluent and high-net- worth customers. Especially those with international banking needs who seek new investment opportunities to help them to protect and grow their wealth. Our recognised brand, financial strength and complementary footprints across Asia and the Middle East serve to reinforce HSBC‘s position in the world’s fastest-growing wealth markets. We also have an asset management business with distinct specialism in both regions offering customers access to investment opportunities across asset classes. The Hong Kong and UK businesses give us strong platforms in our home markets. We serve personal banking customers and small and medium enterprises in these businesses. In Hong Kong specifically, where HSBC was founded, Hang Seng Bank, a customer- centric community bank, is a strategically important investment of the HSBC Group, which enhances the strength of our franchise and market-leading position. We also have a fast-growing insurance manufacturing business in Hong Kong, leveraging the inflows that are propelling Hong Kong to become the leading international wealth hub. In the UK, we have a leading retail, commercial and innovation-focused bank which continues to build market share. Customers in Hong Kong and the UK with global banking needs will be able to access the power of our international network through our CIB and IWPB businesses, that are anchored in these two leading international financial centres.

| HSBC Holdings plcAnnual Report on Form 20-F | 13 |

Financial strength CET1 ratio 14.9 % (2023: 14.8 %) In 2024, our strong financial performance enabled us to announce $26.9bn in returns to our shareholders through dividends and share buy-backs. Cost discipline Operating expenses $33.0bn (2023: $ 32.1 bn) Target basis operating expenses up 5% to $