HSBC 2008 Annual Report Download - page 8

HSBC HOLDINGS PLC
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Cautionary Statement
6
The Annual Report and Accounts 2008 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:
– continuing or deepening recessions and
fluctuations in employment;
– changes in foreign exchange rates, in both
market exchange rates (for example,
between the US dollar and pound sterling)
and government-established exchange rates
(for example, between the Hong Kong
dollar and US dollar);
– volatility in interest rates;
– volatility in equity markets, including in the
smaller and less liquid trading markets in
Asia and Latin America;
– lack of liquidity in wholesale funding
markets;
– illiquidity and downward price pressure in
national real estate markets, particularly
consumer-owned real estate markets;
– the length and severity of current market
turmoil;
– the impact of lower than expected
investment returns on the funding of 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; and
– consumer perception as to the continuing
availability of credit, and price competition
in the market segments served by HSBC.
• changes in government policy and regulation,
including:
– the monetary, interest rate and other
policies of central banks and other
regulatory authorities, including the UK
Financial Services Authority, the Bank of
England, the Hong Kong Monetary
Authority, the US Federal Reserve, the US
Securities and Exchange Commission, 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 government policy that
may significantly influence investor
decisions, in particular in markets in which
HSBC operates, including financial
institutions newly taken into state
ownership on a full or partial basis;
– extraordinary government actions as a result
of current market turmoil;