Review by Noel Quinn, Group Chief Executive

By the time we completed the first phase of our strategy at the end of 2022, the changes we had made were delivering an improved financial performance. Six months into 2023, our financial performance has continued to improve, aided by the interest rate environment. As we move further into the next phase of our strategy focused on value creation, I am optimistic about our ability to continue to deliver strong returns for our investors.

Our purpose of 'opening up a world of opportunity' underpins everything we do for our customers, colleagues and the communities we serve. In the first half of 2023, we continued to deliver on that promise by launching new products and services, and developing our capabilities to meet the international needs of our diverse customer base. From the new international proposition for Wealth and Personal Banking customers launched in March and the continued development of our Global Money and Global Wallet products, to the digitisation of international account opening and the globally connected HSBC Innovation Banking business launched in June, there are many examples of how my colleagues are truly living our purpose.

Many of these achievements contributed to our strong first-half performance, as we saw continued good revenue growth across all our global businesses, supported by higher interest rates. We delivered a strong annualised return on tangible equity of 22.4%, including the reversal of an impairment relating to the planned sale of our retail banking operations in France and a provisional gain on the acquisition of SVB UK, both of which were reported in the first quarter. Excluding them, we achieved an annualised return on tangible equity of 18.5%. Our strategy is working. The Board, my colleagues and our shareholders are all focused on the shared objectives of supporting our customers, driving stronger performance and creating more value for our investors.

The biggest challenge we all face remains the uncertainty within the external environment. High inflation remains a significant concern for many of our customers. Even though headline inflation rates are now falling in most countries, they remain persistently high in some markets. In the UK, we have seen limited signs of stress in the mortgage book, although we are acutely aware of the day-to-day financial challenges that some of our customers face. With more mortgage customers due to roll off fixed-term deals in the next six months, and further rate rises expected, tougher times are ahead. We will continue to communicate regularly with our customers, listen to their concerns, seek to offer them help should they want it and ensure they are aware of the range of products available to them.

Across the global economy, growth remains uneven. China's reopening at the start of the year lifted both its economy and the prospects for global GDP growth in 2023, although weaker recent data underlines that its recovery may be slower than previously expected. Other parts of Asia, such as India and the ASEAN region, are growing robustly, as is the Middle East.

From transformation to value creation

At the end of 2022, we completed the first phase of our strategy. As a result of the work done to transform HSBC, including to reposition our portfolio, create broad-based profit generation, maintain strong cost discipline and introduce a sustainable dividend, we built a strong platform for growth. This work helped to put HSBC on track to achieve a return on tangible equity of 12%+ in 2023.

In the first half of 2023, our strategic approach has changed from transformation to value creation. While there have been - and will continue to be - opportunities to further simplify HSBC, we have shifted our focus to driving growth, while maintaining strong returns.

First, we have further leveraged our international connectivity. Our ability to connect the world's major trading and investment blocs has always been, and remains, our greatest strength. In the first-half, our wholesale cross-border client business increased by around 50%, with growth across all regions, due mainly to rising interest rates. In Wealth and Personal Banking, we now have 6.3 million international customers, which is up 8% on the same period last year. There was also strong revenue growth in global transaction banking, which was up by 63%. Within global transaction banking, there were good performances in Foreign Exchange and in Global Payments Solutions, due to higher rates. Trade was slightly down in line with global trade volumes, although HSBC was recently named 'Best Bank for Trade Finance' by Euromoney for the second year in a row, while also being named 'Best Bank in Asia'.

Second, we made further progress towards the redeployment of capital from less strategic or low-connectivity businesses into high-growth international opportunities. We are pleased to have agreed revised terms for the sale of our French retail banking operations, which we now expect to complete in early 2024. The sale of our banking operations in Canada also remains on track to complete in early 2024. We have also completed the disposal of our Greek business, and announced the planned exit of Russia, a change to the nature of our presence in Oman, and the wind-down of Wealth and Personal Banking in New Zealand.

At the same time, we are investing in growth in a strategic and targeted way. We have invested further in our Wealth business in Asia. We now have a total of 1,400 digitally enabled wealth planners in our Pinnacle business in mainland China, while we launched Global Private Banking in India in July. In June, following our acquisition of SVB UK, we also launched a new strengthened, globally connected proposition - HSBC Innovation Banking. Through it, we are building similar businesses to the former SVB UK in the US, Hong Kong and Israel, and using our international network and balance sheet strength to offer new opportunities to expand globally to our clients in the technology and life sciences sectors.

Third, we are working to diversify our revenue. A key strategic priority has been to grow fee income by investing in our Wealth business, especially in Asia. We saw the continuing benefit of this in the first-half as we grew net new invested assets by $34bn, of which $27bn were in Asia. Fee income in Commercial Banking, which is another priority area, was also up in the first-half by 6%, while collaboration revenue from referrals between our global businesses also increased by 5%.

Fourth, we have maintained tight cost discipline. Costs of $15.5bn in the first-half were $0.7bn or 4% lower than the same period last year, primarily due to lower restructuring costs following the end of our cost-saving programme at the end of 2022. On the basis of our target to limit cost growth to around 3% in 2023, operating expenses increased by 4% in the first-half, including the expected severance costs booked in the second quarter. We remain committed to disciplined cost management.

Fifth, we have reinvested cost savings in technology. Spending on technology increased by 12.8% in the first-half, and now accounts for almost a quarter of total operating expenses. Delivering faster services, reducing friction and offering more competitive products has been critical to improving the customer experience. For example, we have now migrated over 26,000 business customers in Hong Kong and the UK to our next generation digital trade platform, which is enabling us to future-proof a market-leading business.

Investing in technology is also key to enhancing our capabilities and building the bank of the future. We now have a range of 'test and learn' use cases for generative AI across HSBC, and are in the process of scaling those up. Last month, HSBC became the first bank to join BT's and Toshiba's quantum-secured metro network employing quantum technology for secure transmission of data, which will enable us to evaluate how best to use this technology against future cyber threats. We are also pleased to be working with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority on two pilots to test the e-HKD in a new payments ecosystem and to trial tokenised deposits.

Finally, we continued to build on our position as an enabler of the net zero transition by supporting our customers' transition plans. In the first-half, we provided and facilitated $45bn of sustainable finance and investments, which consisted of capital markets financing and lending to clients as we continued to work closely with them on their transitions. This included a number of key deals in Asia and the Middle East. We have also continued to help unlock new climate solutions, including through our Climate Tech Venture Capital strategy. HSBC was named 'Best Bank for Sustainable Finance in Asia' by Euromoney for the sixth consecutive year.

Translating into strong financial performance

Our strong first-half featured good broad-based profit generation around the world. There was also higher revenue in our global businesses driven by strong net interest income, supported by continued tight cost control. We achieved an annualised return on tangible equity of 22.4%, or 18.5% excluding the two material notable items reported with our first quarter results.

Profit before tax for the first half of 2023 was $21.7bn, which was an increase of $12.9bn on the first half of 2022. This included a $2.1bn reversal of an impairment relating to the planned sale of our retail banking operations in France and a provisional gain of $1.5bn on the acquisition of SVB UK. Profit after tax increased by $9.1bn to $18.1bn.

Revenue increased by $12.3bn to $36.9bn, driven mainly by higher net interest income in all three global businesses due to interest rate rises. It also included gains related to the two aforementioned transactions in the first quarter.

Expected credit losses and other credit impairment charges were $1.3bn, which was a $0.3bn increase on the first half of 2022.

Our CET1 ratio at the end of the first-half was 14.7%. We have announced a second interim dividend of $0.10 per share, further to the $0.10 per share dividend already paid in respect of the first quarter. We are also announcing a second share buy-back of up to $2bn. We continue to expect to have substantial distribution capacity going forward.

Our strong performance in the first half of 2023 and our continued strategic progress mean that we now expect to achieve a return on tangible equity in the mid-teens for 2023 and 2024.

Thank you to my colleagues

Over the last six months, I had the opportunity to spend time with colleagues in France, Hong Kong, mainland China, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the UK. I have been constantly impressed by their commitment, dedication and tireless efforts to support our customers - all of which are evident in our many achievements. I am especially grateful to those colleagues who have faced serious challenges so far this year, including the earthquakes in Türkiye in February and, of course, the ongoing cost of living crisis in many markets.

Overall, we have delivered a strong first-half performance and are confident of delivering our revised return on tangible equity target for 2023 and 2024. I am also pleased that we can reward our shareholders with strong capital returns, with substantial further distribution capacity still expected ahead.

There is still much work to do, especially given the many challenges in the global economy, but I am confident about our future as we move further into the next phase of our strategy and focus on opportunities to drive value creation, diversify our revenue and retain tight cost control.

Noel Quinn

Group Chief Executive

1 August 2023