HSBC 2008 Annual Report Download - page 69

67
Customer groups and global
businesses
Page
Summary ....................................................... 67
Personal Financial Services ........................... 68
Commercial Banking ..................................... 72
Global Banking and Markets ......................... 75
Private Banking ............................................. 79
Other ............................................................. 82
Analysis by customer group and global
business ...................................................... 84
Summary
HSBC manages its business through two customer
groups, Personal Financial Services and Commercial
Banking, and two global businesses, Global Banking
and Markets (previously Corporate, Investment
Banking and Markets), and Private Banking.
Personal Financial Services incorporates the Group’s
consumer finance businesses; the largest of these is
HSBC Finance Corporation (‘HSBC Finance’).
All commentaries on the customer groups and
global businesses are on an underlying basis unless
stated otherwise.
Profit/(loss) before tax
2008 2007 2006
US$m % US$m % US$m %
Personal Financial Services ..................... (10,974) (117.9) 5,900 24.4 9,457 42.8
Commercial Banking ............................... 7,194 77.3 7,145 29.5 5,997 27.2
Global Banking and Markets ................... 3,483 37.4 6,121 25.3 5,806 26.3
Private Banking ....................................... 1,447 15.6 1,511 6.2 1,214 5.5
Other13 ...................................................... 8,157 87.6 3,535 14.6 (388) (1.8)
9,307 100.0 24,212 100.0 22,086 100.0
Total assets15
At 31 December
2008 2007
US$m % US$m %
Personal Financial Services .......................................................................... 514,419 20.4 621,356 26.4
Commercial Banking .................................................................................... 249,218 9.9 307,944 13.1
Global Banking and Markets ........................................................................ 1,896,630 75.0 1,561,468 66.3
Private Banking ............................................................................................ 133,216 5.3 130,893 5.6
Other ............................................................................................................. 135,001 5.3 155,685 6.6
Intra-HSBC items ......................................................................................... (401,019) (15.9) (423,080) (18.0)
2,527,465 100.0 2,354,266 100.0
For footnotes, see page 145.
Basis of preparation
The results are presented in accordance with the
accounting policies used in the preparation of
HSBC’s consolidated financial statements. HSBC’s
operations are closely integrated and, accordingly,
the presentation of customer group data includes
internal allocations of certain items of income and
expense. These allocations include the costs of
certain support services and Group Management
Office (‘GMO’) functions, to the extent that these
can be meaningfully attributed to operational
business lines. While such allocations have been
made on a systematic and consistent basis, they
necessarily involve a degree of subjectivity.
Where relevant, income and expense amounts
presented include the results of inter-segment
funding as well as inter-company and inter-business
line transactions. All such transactions are
undertaken on arm’s length terms.