This document comprises the Annual Report and Accounts 2014 for HSBC Holdings plc and its subsidiaries. It contains the Strategic Report, the Report of the Directors, the Directors' Remuneration Report and the Financial Statements, together with the Independent Auditor's Report thereon, as required by the UK Companies Act 2006 (Strategic Report and Directors' Report) Regulations 2013. The Strategic Report on pages 1 to 39, the Report of the Directors on pages 40 to 299 and the Directors' Remuneration Report on pages 300 to 327 have each been drawn up in accordance with the requirements of English law, and liability in respect thereof is also governed by English law.
Additional information, including commentary on 2013 compared with 2012, may be found in the Form 20-F filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') 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' refer 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 and capital securities issued by HSBC Holdings 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 could differ from IFRSs as issued by the IASB if, at any point in time, new or amended IFRSs were not to be endorsed by the EU. At 31 December 2014, there were no unendorsed standards effective for the year ended 31 December 2014 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 2014 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 'adjusted' is made in tables or commentaries, the comparative information has been expressed at constant currency (see page 40), the impact of fair value movements in respect of credit spread charges on HSBC's own debt has been eliminated and the effects of other significant items have been adjusted as reconciled on page 44. Adjusted return on risk-weighted assets is defined and reconciled on page 62.
