HSBC 2005 Annual Report Download - page 7

HSBC HOLDINGS PLC
Cautionary Statement regarding Forward-Looking Statements
5
This Annual Report contains certain forward-looking
statements with respect to the financial condition,
results of operations and business of HSBC.
Statements that are not historical facts,
including statements about HSBC’s beliefs and
expectations, are forward-looking statements. Words
such as ‘expects’, ‘anticipates’, ‘intends’, ‘plans’,
‘believes’, ‘seeks’, ‘estimates’, ‘potential’ and
‘reasonably possible’, variations of these words and
similar expressions are intended to identify forward-
looking statements. These statements are based on
current plans, estimates and projections, and
therefore undue reliance should not be placed on
them. Forward-looking statements speak only as of
the date they are made, and it should not be assumed
that they have been revised or updated in the light of
new information or future events.
Written and/or oral forward-looking statements
may also be made in the periodic reports to the
United States Securities and Exchange Commission,
summary financial statements to shareholders, proxy
statements, offering circulars and prospectuses, press
releases and other written materials, and in oral
statements made by HSBC’s Directors, officers or
employees to third parties, including financial
analysts.
Forward-looking statements involve inherent
risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that a
number of factors could cause actual results to differ,
in some instances materially, from those anticipated
or implied in any forward-looking statement. These
factors include, among others:
• changes in general economic conditions in the
markets in which HSBC operates, such as:
– changes in foreign exchange rates, in both
market exchange rates (for example,
between the US dollar and the pound
sterling) and government-established
exchange rates (for example, between the
Hong Kong dollar and the US dollar);
– volatility in interest rates;
– volatility in equity markets, including in the
smaller and less liquid trading markets in
Asia and South America;
– lack of liquidity in wholesale funding
markets in periods of economic or political
crisis;
– illiquidity and downward price pressure in
national real estate markets, particularly
consumer-owned real estate markets;
– the impact of lower than expected
investment returns on the burden of funding
private and public sector defined benefit
pensions;
– the effect of unexpected changes in
actuarial assumptions on longevity which
would influence the funding of private and
public sector defined benefit pensions;
– continuing or deepening recessions and
employment fluctuations; and
– consumer perception as to the continuing
availability of credit, and price competition
in the market segments served by HSBC.
• changes in governmental policy and regulation,
including:
– the monetary, interest rate and other
policies of central banks and bank and other
regulatory authorities, including the United
Kingdom Financial Services Authority, the
Bank of England, the Hong Kong Monetary
Authority, the United States Federal
Reserve, the US Office of the Comptroller
of the Currency, the European Central
Bank, the People’s Bank of China and the
central banks of other leading economies
and markets where HSBC operates;
– expropriation, nationalisation, confiscation
of assets and changes in legislation relating
to foreign ownership;
– initiatives by local, state and national
regulatory agencies or legislative bodies to
revise the practices, pricing or
responsibilities of financial institutions
serving their consumer markets;
– changes in bankruptcy legislation in the
principal markets in which HSBC operates
and the consequences thereof;
– general changes in governmental policy that
may significantly influence investor
decisions in particular markets in which
HSBC operates;
– other unfavourable political or diplomatic
developments producing social instability
or legal uncertainty which in turn may
affect demand for HSBC’s products and
services;
– the costs, effects and outcomes of
regulatory reviews, actions or litigation,
including any additional compliance
requirements; and