Annual Financial Report - 1 of 48

This document comprises the Annual Report and Accounts 2012 for HSBC Holdings plc and its subsidiaries. It contains the Report of the Directors and Financial Statements, together with the Independent Auditor's Report thereon, as required by the UK Companies Act 2006. The Annual Review 2012 of HSBC Holdings plc is published as a separate document. The Report of the Directors on pages 2 to 346 and the Directors' Remuneration Report on pages 347 to 367 have each been drawn up in accordance with the requirements of English law, and liability in respect thereof is also governed by English law. In particular, the liability of the Directors for these reports is solely to HSBC Holdings plc.

Additional information, including commentary on 2011 compared with 2010, may be found in the Form 20‑F filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and available on www.hsbc.com and www.sec.gov.

Certain defined terms

Unless the context requires otherwise, 'HSBC Holdings' means HSBC Holdings plc and 'HSBC', the 'Group', 'we', 'us' and 'our' refers to HSBC Holdings together with its subsidiaries. Within this document the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China is referred to as 'Hong Kong'. When used in the terms 'shareholders' equity' and 'total shareholders' equity', 'shareholders' means holders of HSBC Holdings ordinary shares and those preference shares classified as equity. The abbreviations 'US$m' and 'US$bn' represent millions and billions (thousands of millions) of US dollars, respectively.

Financial statements

The consolidated financial statements of HSBC and the separate financial statements of HSBC Holdings have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ('IFRSs') as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board ('IASB') and as endorsed by the European Union ('EU'). EU‑endorsed IFRSs may differ from IFRSs as issued by the IASB if, at any point in time, new or amended IFRSs have not been endorsed by the EU. At 31 December 2012, there were no unendorsed standards effective for the year ended 31 December 2012 affecting these consolidated and separate financial statements, and there was no difference between IFRSs endorsed by the EU and IFRSs issued by the IASB in terms of their application to HSBC. Accordingly, HSBC's financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2012 are prepared in accordance with IFRSs as issued by the IASB.

We use the US dollar as our presentation currency because the US dollar and currencies linked to it form the major currency bloc in which we transact and fund our business. Unless otherwise stated, the information presented in this document has been prepared in accordance with IFRSs.

When reference to 'underlying' is made in tables or commentaries, comparative information has been expressed at constant currency (see page 25), eliminating the impact of fair value movements in respect of credit spread changes on HSBC's own debt and adjusting for the effects of acquisitions and disposals as reconciled on page 28. Underlying RoRWA is defined and reconciled on page 52.