HSBC Holdings plc (HSBC)

HSBC is a banking group operating in 56 markets. From January 2025 it runs a new structure built on four businesses, which it calls Hong Kong, the UK, Corporate and Institutional Banking, and International Wealth and Premier Banking, and which halved the previous number of operating businesses. Figures are stated in US dollars, and the business-line growth rates below are on a constant currency basis.

Hong Kong

The Hong Kong business generated income of $15.9bn, 6% higher than the year before. Its deposit base grew 7% to more than $540bn, which the filing says holds its number one position in Hong Kong on a market share of 25%.

The UK

The UK business generated income of $12.9bn, 5% higher, on customer loans up 6% to more than $300bn.

Corporate and Institutional Banking

This business generated income of $27.6bn, 3% higher, of which $13.1bn was fee and other income, up 7%. It sits behind a trade and payments network that facilitated around $900bn of trade during 2025, which the filing equates to around $2.5bn of goods and services a day and access to 86% of world trade flows. The network also processed around $500tn of payment transactions in 130 currencies.

International Wealth and Premier Banking

This business generated income of $14.5bn, 5% higher. Wealth fee and other income across all the businesses was $9.4bn, up 24%. Bank-wide wealth balances were $2.1tn at 31 December 2025, 16% higher than a year earlier, with more than $1tn booked in Asia, and net new invested assets of $80bn came in during the year, $39bn of it booked in Asia. The company is investing in Wealth Centres and hiring more relationship managers, and it has begun a strategic review of HSBC Life Singapore. From 2026 the disclosure changes: invested assets of $1.5tn is replaced by a wealth balances figure that adds $608bn of wealth customers' deposits and removes $580bn of asset management third-party distribution assets, which puts 2025 at $1.6tn on the new basis.

The group numbers

Profit before tax was $29.9bn against $32.3bn in 2024, and on a constant currency basis excluding notable items it was $36.6bn against $34.2bn. Return on average tangible equity was 13.3% against 14.6%, or 17.2% excluding notable items against 15.6%. Operating expenses were $36.4bn against $33.0bn, and the cost efficiency ratio 53.4% against 50.2%. Feedback was gathered from over one million customers across the four business segments during the year.

Capital and the Hang Seng move

The common equity tier 1 ratio was 14.9%, unchanged on the year and above the medium-term target range of 14% to 14.5%. The total dividend announced in respect of 2025 was $0.75 a share, a 50% payout on a target basis, with $5.2bn of ordinary dividends paid during the year and a further $7.7bn expected through the fourth interim dividend. Share buy-backs of $6bn took total returns to $18.9bn. The privatisation of Hang Seng Bank carries a day one impact of around 120 basis points on the ratio, partly offset by around 10 basis points released from hedging-related structural foreign exchange risk weighted assets, and the company states that it plans to restore the ratio through organic capital generation and by pausing further buy-backs until it is back within or above the range.

From HSBC's annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended 31 December 2025. That filing carries no Item 4 or Item 5 heading in its body, using a cross-reference index at the back instead, so the annual report is read as one whole document rather than from separately located sections. The filing