HSBC Holdings (HSBA) — Company Research

Last Updated: 21 October 2026

HSBC Holdings plc is Europe's largest bank and one of the largest in the world, with total assets of US$3.44tn at 30 June 2026 and operations in 56 countries and territories. Headquartered in London but earning most of its profit in Asia, it now runs four businesses — Hong Kong, the UK, Corporate and Institutional Banking, and International Wealth and Premier Banking. Since the last version of this report HSBC has completed the US$13.7bn privatisation of Hang Seng Bank, reported a 23% rise in first-half profit before tax, restarted buybacks and agreed a string of further exits from retail markets. Every figure below is taken from HSBC's results announcements, interim and annual reports and SEC filings. There are no analyst opinions, price targets or ratings anywhere in it.

Share prices, and figures worked out from them, are not shown for London-listed companies on ChartsView.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Ticker / exchange	HSBA.L — London Stock Exchange (also Hong Kong: 0005; NYSE ADS: HSBC)
Sector	Banking — international retail, wealth, commercial and investment banking
Revenue (FY2025)	US$71,020m excluding notable items (constant currency); US$68,274m reported net operating income before expected credit losses
Profit before tax (FY2025)	US$29,907m reported (FY2024: US$32,309m)
Profit attributable to ordinary shareholders (FY2025)	US$21,102m
Basic EPS (FY2025)	US$1.21; US$1.51 excluding material notable items
Dividend per share (FY2025)	US$0.75
H1 2026 profit before tax	US$19,522m, up 23% (H1 2025: US$15,810m)
Return on tangible equity (H1 2026, annualised)	18.2% reported; 19.1% excluding notable items
CET1 capital ratio (30 June 2026)	14.1% (31 December 2025: 14.9%), against a 14–14.5% target range
Total assets (30 June 2026)	US$3,438bn
Employees	About 209,000 full-time equivalent at 31 December 2025 (FY2025 Form 20-F); average of 218,271 during 2025
CEO / Leadership	Georges Elhedery, Group Chief Executive; Brendan Nelson, Group Chairman; Pam Kaur, Group Chief Financial Officer (leaving in 2027)
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom

2. The Bull and Bear Case

Bull Case

• Returns running ahead of target: H1 2026 profit before tax rose 23% to US$19.5bn and annualised return on tangible equity reached 19.1% excluding notable items, well above the "17% or better" target management has set for each year from 2026 to 2028.
• Net interest income guidance keeps rising: 2026 banking net interest income guidance has been lifted twice this year, to at least US$46bn at the H1 results, from at least US$45bn earlier in the year.
• A growing wealth engine in Asia: wealth balances stand at about US$1.6tn, net new money was US$64bn in H1 2026 (US$57bn of it in Asia) and wealth fee and other income rose 18% at constant currency to US$5.5bn.
• Simplification is delivering: US$1.7bn of annualised cost savings had been actioned by mid-2026, and the end-2026 target was raised from US$1.5bn to about US$2.0bn, while non-core retail businesses in Australia, Egypt, Malta, Indonesia and Singapore insurance are being sold.

Bear Case

• Concentrated in Hong Kong and Asia: Hong Kong alone produced US$5.1bn of the group's US$19.5bn H1 2026 profit before tax, and the Hang Seng buy-in has deepened that exposure to the Hong Kong economy, mainland China and US–China relations.
• Credit costs above the long-run range: management guides expected credit losses of around 45 basis points of loans for 2026, above its 30–40bps planning range, after a US$0.4bn fraud-related charge and a US$0.3bn Middle East conflict charge in Q1 2026.
• Thinner capital headroom: the CET1 ratio fell from 14.9% to 14.1% in H1 2026, near the bottom of the 14–14.5% target range, after the Hang Seng deal absorbed about 110 basis points; buybacks restarted at only US$1bn.
• Leadership and restructuring churn: the Group CFO is leaving in 2027, a successor is being sought for the asset management chief, and deep cuts to UK wealth roles have been reported, all while the bank exits several markets at once.

3. Revenue Segments

HSBC reports four businesses plus a Corporate Centre. Figures below are reported revenue (net operating income before expected credit losses) for the six months to 30 June 2026, from the 2026 interim results; some clients were moved into CIB from 1 January 2026 and comparatives were re-presented.

Segment	% of revenue	What it is
Corporate & Institutional Banking (US$15,609m)	41.4%	Global banking, markets, securities services and transaction banking for corporates, institutions and governments. H1 2026 profit before tax US$7,250m.
Hong Kong (US$8,132m)	21.5%	Retail, wealth and commercial banking in HSBC's largest single market, now including the wholly owned Hang Seng Bank. H1 2026 profit before tax US$5,138m.
International Wealth & Premier Banking (US$7,739m)	20.5%	Premier banking, private banking, asset management and insurance outside Hong Kong and the UK. H1 2026 profit before tax US$2,616m.
UK (US$6,530m)	17.3%	HSBC UK Bank plc, the ring-fenced retail and commercial bank. H1 2026 profit before tax US$3,332m.
Corporate Centre (−US$268m)	−0.7%	Central treasury, legacy items, disposal losses and consolidation adjustments.

Group H1 2026 revenue was US$37,742m, up 11% on H1 2025. Compare global bank names on the ChartsView Live Charts page.

4. Business Model and Moat

How it makes money. Most of HSBC's income is net interest income — the gap between what it earns on loans, securities and central-bank balances and what it pays on US$1.83tn of customer accounts. Net interest income was US$34,794m in 2025 (SEC XBRL), about half of revenue. The rest is fees and trading income from wealth management, transaction banking, markets and insurance.

Unit economics. HSBC's balance sheet is unusually liquid: at 30 June 2026 net loans to customers were US$1,022bn against customer accounts of US$1,828bn, so a large share of deposits is placed in liquid assets rather than lent. That makes earnings sensitive to interest rates, which HSBC manages with a structural hedge, but it also keeps funding cheap and stable.

The moat. HSBC's advantage is its network: a dominant Hong Kong franchise, a large low-cost Asian deposit base and a presence in 56 markets that lets it bank cross-border trade and capital flows that domestic rivals cannot easily serve. Wealth balances of about US$1.6tn, with Asia supplying most new money, give it a second engine less dependent on rates.

Capital return policy. The group targets a 50% dividend payout ratio on earnings excluding material notable items and pays quarterly interim dividends. Buybacks were paused after the Hang Seng offer was announced in October 2025 and restarted with a US$1bn programme in August 2026.

5. Financial Health

HSBC reports in US dollars. The revenue column uses HSBC's own headline measure, revenue excluding notable items at constant currency, because reported revenue has been distorted by disposal gains and losses. Reported revenue is shown in the note below the table.

Fiscal Year	Revenue ($m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2022	53,383‡	n/m	US$0.72	Not published	US$0.32	US$78,149m
FY2023	64,835	+20.8%	US$1.15	US$1.22	US$0.61	US$93,917m
FY2024	67,591	+4.3%	US$1.25	US$1.31	US$0.87	US$105,785m
FY2025	71,020	+5.1%	US$1.21	US$1.51	US$0.75	US$99,675m

‡ Revenue excluding notable items. FY2023–FY2025 are at 2025 average exchange rates (FY2025 results); FY2022 is at 2024 rates (FY2024 results), and the FY2023 growth rate of +20.8% is calculated on the 2024-rate figures (US$64,489m against US$53,383m). Reported revenue was US$50,620m (FY2022, restated for IFRS 17), US$66,058m (FY2023), US$65,854m (FY2024) and US$68,274m (FY2025); FY2021 reported revenue was US$49,552m under the old IFRS 4 basis, which is not comparable, so the table starts in FY2022. GAAP EPS is basic earnings per share; Adjusted EPS excludes material notable items and was not published for FY2022. The FY2024 dividend includes a US$0.21 special dividend from the sale of the Canadian business. Long-term debt is debt securities in issue at each year end, from HSBC's SEC XBRL data (ifrs-full:DebtSecurities, CIK 0001089113); HSBC also had subordinated liabilities of US$22,290m, US$24,954m, US$25,958m and US$28,406m at the end of FY2022–FY2025.

Quarter / Half	Revenue, reported ($m)	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
Q2 2026	19,118	US$0.45	US$0.45
Q1 2026	18,624	US$0.44	US$0.41
Q4 2025	16,364	US$0.37	US$0.28
Q3 2025	17,788	US$0.36	US$0.28
Q2 2025	16,473	US$0.39	US$0.26
Full year 2025 (reported)	68,274	US$1.51	US$1.21

Quarterly revenue is the reported figure; revenue excluding notable items was US$19,043m in Q2 2026 and US$19,125m in Q1 2026. Adjusted EPS excludes material notable items (2Q26 investor presentation). H1 2026 basic EPS was US$0.85 (H1 2025: US$0.65). At 30 June 2026 total shareholders' equity was US$196.7bn, risk-weighted assets US$906bn and the leverage ratio 4.9%.

6. Valuation Metrics

Share prices, and figures worked out from them, are not shown for London-listed companies on ChartsView.

Raw metrics, October 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Tangible net asset value per share	US$9.36 (30 June 2026)
Net asset value per share	US$10.08 (30 June 2026)
Return on tangible equity	18.2% annualised in H1 2026 (19.1% excluding notable items); target 17% or better excluding notable items in each of 2026–2028
CET1 capital ratio	14.1% at 30 June 2026; target range 14–14.5%
Leverage ratio	4.9% (30 June 2026)
Dividend payout target	50% of EPS excluding material notable items; US$0.20 declared for H1 2026
Shares in issue	17,141,942,291 after the US$1bn buyback concluded on 28 September 2026
Short interest (% of float)	— not published for this period. Since 13 July 2026 the Financial Conduct Authority publishes only anonymised aggregate net short positions under PS26/5, not individual positions. Verify HSBA in the FCA aggregated net short positions file at fca.org.uk.
Days to cover	n/a — not published for London-listed shares under the current FCA regime

7. What Are They Building

A simpler, Asia-weighted bank. Since 1 January 2025 HSBC has run four businesses instead of a matrix of regions and global lines. The organisational simplification programme had actioned US$1.7bn of annualised savings for US$1.4bn of cost by mid-2026, and the target was raised to about US$2.0bn by the end of 2026. About US$1.8bn of costs is being redeployed from non-strategic areas to growth areas.

Owning Hang Seng outright. The privatisation of Hang Seng Bank at HK$155 a share completed on 26 January 2026. HSBC expects US$0.5bn of synergies by the end of 2028 for US$0.6bn of restructuring costs, with a further US$0.4bn of upside ambition.

Exiting sub-scale retail markets. In 2026 HSBC completed sales of its UK life insurance business, South Africa and Sri Lanka retail, and wound down Bangladesh retail. It agreed to sell HSBC Life Singapore to Allianz for S$2.7bn (24 July), its Australian home and personal loan book of about A$36bn to Blackstone funds (31 July) and Egypt retail banking to Emirates NBD Egypt (2 August). Malta and Indonesia retail are being sold, and Türkiye retail is under strategic review.

Digital money and AI. HSBC has extended tokenised deposits to six markets including the US and UAE, holds a Hong Kong stablecoin issuer licence with issuance planned in the second half of 2026, and was technology provider for the UK's first digital government bond. Reported cuts to UK wealth adviser roles in October 2026 were linked by the press to AI adoption; HSBC did not confirm the numbers.

8. Competitive Landscape

HSBC competes with the global universal banks in wholesale banking and with Standard Chartered, DBS and local banks across Asia, and with the UK majors through HSBC UK.

Peer	Key metric (latest reported)
Standard Chartered (STAN.L)	H1 2026 profit before tax US$4.8bn, a record, with return on tangible equity of 17.6% (half-year results, 29 Jul 2026)
JPMorgan Chase (JPM)	Q3 2026 net income US$15.3bn and EPS US$5.57 (earnings release, 13 Oct 2026)
Barclays (BARC.L)	H1 2026 profit before tax £6,066m, up 17%, with return on tangible equity of 14.8% (H1 2026 results)
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L)	H1 2026 statutory profit before tax £4,293m, up 23%, with return on tangible equity of 17.1% (half-year results, 30 Jul 2026)
BNP Paribas (BNP.PA)	Q2 2026 net income, group share, €4,345m, up 33.4%, with a CET1 ratio of 13.0% (2Q26 results)

On returns HSBC's 19.1% H1 2026 RoTE excluding notable items is at the top of this group; what sets it apart is scale and Asian deposit funding rather than growth in its Western businesses.

9. Leadership and Insider Activity

Georges Elhedery is Group Chief Executive (CEO). Brendan Nelson became Group Chairman on an interim basis on 1 October 2025 and was confirmed in the role on 3 December 2025. Group CFO Pam Kaur announced on 10 September 2026 that she will step down in 2027, by the 2027 AGM at the latest, and then advise the CEO; a search for a successor is under way. Elizabeth Alison Platt joined the board as an independent non-executive director on 1 October 2026.

Director and PDMR dealings disclosed through RNS notifications in 2026 are almost entirely share-plan awards, vesting, dividend equivalents and dividend reinvestment. No open-market discretionary purchases or sales by directors were found.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Plan Type
Georges Elhedery (Group CEO)	09 Mar 2026	Award	702,028	Long-term incentive, HSBC Share Plan 2011
Georges Elhedery (Group CEO)	09 Mar 2026	Vesting; partial sale	140,600 vested; 66,082 sold	Annual incentive; shares sold to cover tax
Pam Kaur (Group CFO)	09 Mar 2026	Award	409,516	Long-term incentive, HSBC Share Plan 2011
Pam Kaur (Group CFO)	09 Mar 2026	Vesting; partial sale	81,903 vested; 38,495 sold	Annual incentive; shares sold to cover tax
David Liao (Co-CEO, Asia and Middle East)	26 Jun 2026	Acquisition	4,774	Dividend reinvestment
Georges Elhedery (Group CEO)	21 Aug 2026	Acquisition	3,525	Dividend equivalents, HSBC Share Plan 2011
Pam Kaur (Group CFO)	21 Aug 2026	Acquisition	2,060	Dividend equivalents, HSBC Share Plan 2011
David Liao (Co-CEO, Asia and Middle East)	25 Sep 2026	Acquisition	4,504	Dividend reinvestment

10. Key Risks

• Hong Kong and China concentration (Macro): the Hong Kong business alone produced about a quarter of H1 2026 profit before tax, and the group's top and emerging risks rate geopolitical and macroeconomic risk as heightened, citing trade-policy uncertainty and the Middle East conflict.
• Credit losses (Credit): 2026 expected credit loss guidance of around 45 basis points sits above the 30–40bps planning range, after a US$0.4bn fraud-related charge on a UK securitisation exposure and US$0.3bn for the Middle East conflict in Q1 2026. Management's Q1 stress scenarios showed a possible mid-to-high single-digit hit to profit before tax.
• Capital headroom (Financial): CET1 of 14.1% is close to the bottom of the 14–14.5% target range, leaving less room for buybacks if risk-weighted assets rise or earnings disappoint.
• Interest rates (Financial): net interest income is about half of revenue; falling policy rates in Hong Kong, the UK and the US would pressure margins despite the structural hedge.
• Strategic execution (Operational): HSBC is integrating Hang Seng, running a US$2.0bn savings programme and selling or winding down several retail businesses at once; management rates strategic execution risk as heightened.
• Legal and financial crime (Legal): FY2025 results included legal provisions, notably for litigation relating to the Madoff fraud, and management rates financial crime, sanctions and export-control risk as heightened across its footprint.
• Leadership transition (Governance): the CFO departs in 2027 and a new asset-management chief is being sought, adding change at the top while the restructuring is still in progress.

11. Recent Developments

• 24 Jul 2026 — Singapore insurance sale agreed. HSBC agreed to sell HSBC Life Singapore to Allianz for S$2.7bn (about US$2.1bn), expecting a pre-tax gain of about US$1.8bn on completion in the first half of 2027.
• 31 Jul 2026 — Australian loan book sale. HSBC agreed to sell its Australian home and personal loan portfolio of about A$36bn to Blackstone funds and to wind down the rest of Australian retail over about 18 months, expecting a loss of under US$100m.
• 02 Aug 2026 — Egypt retail exit. Agreement to sell the Egypt retail banking business to Emirates NBD Egypt, with an estimated pre-tax gain of about US$0.3bn and completion expected in the second half of 2027.
• 04 Aug 2026 — H1 2026 results. Profit before tax of US$19,522m, up 23%; revenue US$37,742m, up 11%; annualised RoTE 18.2% (19.1% excluding notable items). Banking net interest income guidance was raised to at least US$46bn and a second interim dividend of US$0.10 declared.
• 05 Aug 2026 — Buybacks restart. An up-to-US$1bn share buyback began, the first since buybacks were paused for the Hang Seng offer; it concluded on 28 Sep 2026 with 48,657,102 shares repurchased.
• 10 Sep 2026 — CFO succession. Group CFO Pam Kaur said she will leave in 2027, by the 2027 AGM at the latest, and become an adviser to the CEO.
• 07 Oct 2026 — UK wealth job cuts reported. The Financial Times reported deep cuts to UK wealth adviser and management roles linked to AI adoption; HSBC did not confirm the figures.
• 08 Oct 2026 — Korea acquittal upheld. Korea's Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of HSBC's Hong Kong entity in a 2021 naked short-selling case.
• 14 Oct 2026 — Q3 board meeting notified. HSBC confirmed a board meeting on 27 Oct 2026 to approve third-quarter results and consider a third interim dividend.

12. Key Dates to Watch

• 27 Oct 2026 — Q3 2026 earnings release and decision on the third interim dividend for 2026 (HSBC financial calendar)
• 06 Nov 2026 — record date for the third interim dividend, subject to board approval; the ex-dividend date has not yet been published
• 17 Dec 2026 — expected payment date for the third interim dividend
• 23 Feb 2027 — FY2026 annual results
• 24 Feb 2027 — Elizabeth Alison Platt succeeds Dame Carolyn Fairbairn as chair of the Remuneration Committee
• Expected H1 2027 — completion of the HSBC Life Singapore and Australian loan portfolio sales
• TBC — 2027 Annual General Meeting, by which date the current Group CFO will have stepped down

Scheduled macro events that move bank shares — Federal Reserve, Bank of England and Hong Kong rate decisions, inflation and jobs data — are on the ChartsView Economic Calendar. Discuss HSBC with other investors in the ChartsView Forum.

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