HSBC Holdings, plc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Investor and Analyst Conference call for HSBC Holdings, PLC's Q1 2023 results. For your information, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I will hand the call over to Mr. Richard O'Connor, Group Head of Investor Relations.

Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. Before I hand over to Noel, I want to give a quick reminder of the reporting changes that have taken effect this quarter. The numbers in the presentation today are on an IFRS 17 basis. And thank you to all those who attended the teaching in March. Our focus is now on reported numbers, but we will call out and specify notable items. Our global businesses are still the primary basis of our reporting, but we have moved to legal entity rather than geographic regions as our secondary reporting line. Consensus hasn't yet fully caught up with all these changes, but now we've made them. We believe they will give you more clarity, transparency, and ultimately benefit your modeling going forward. Noel, over to you.

Thanks, Richard, and good morning in London, good afternoon in Hong Kong. And thank you for joining our first quarter results call. George is going to lead the presentation, but I'd like to make some opening comments. We've announced a strong set of Q1 results. We delivered a strong profit performance, which was spread across all our major geographies. All three global businesses performed well, and cost discipline remained tight. In the first quarter, excluding the gain on SVB UK and the part reversal of the impairments on the potential sale of our French retail bank, we delivered an annualized return on tangible equity of 19.3 percent. So, our strategy is working. I'm also confident about the future for two main reasons. First, we have built a good platform for growth. We have a strong balance sheet, broad-based geographic profit generation, a good combination of net interest income and non-net interest income, and a tight grip on costs. This growth potential was evident in the inflow of new invested assets of $22 billion in the quarter with a cumulative $93 billion over the last 12 months, which shows that our wealth strategy is continuing to gain traction. And you have my commitment that we will continue to drive strong performance for the rest of the year, while maintaining cost discipline and investing in growth. The second reason I'm confident is the diversity and connectivity of our geographical footprint. where we have access to markets that are exhibiting good growth and return potential. I've seen firsthand the strong economic recoveries underway in Hong Kong and mainland China. I've also visited the Middle East recently, where I saw a strong economy that is well-placed to continue to grow. And the UK economy is also showing good resilience, and our HSBC UK business is performing well. Investing in growth is critical, and we saw an opportunity to do that by acquiring SVB UK. For 158 years, HSBC has banked the entrepreneurs who have created today's industrial base. With the SVB UK acquisition, we have access to more of the entrepreneurs in the technology and life sciences sectors who will create the businesses of tomorrow. We believe they're a natural fit for HSBC and that we're well and uniquely placed to take them global. You will have seen the recent hires that we've taken on in the U.S. in that regard, and we continue and we're going to continue to invest to grow this part of the business on a global basis. We announced that the sale of our French retail bank has become less certain. due to significant interest rate rises in France and the related fair value accounting treatment impacting the capital position of the purchaser. We still believe it's right to sell the business, but we also have to keep our shareholders' interests in mind when negotiating revised terms. We are working with the buyer to try and find a solution, but the uncertainty on deal terms and timing has led us to reverse the impairment. Finally, we made two important announcements today. The first was the resumption of quarterly dividends, with an interim dividend of 10 cents per share, which is the same level as the last time we paid a first quarterly dividend before COVID. The second was that good, continued capital generation enabled us to announce a share buyback of up to $2 billion. Our AGM on Friday will be an important milestone. As you know, resolutions have been tabled by shareholders on the strategy and structure of the bank, as well as to fix the dividends. The Board has recommended that shareholders vote against resolutions 17 and 18. I believe our first quarter results reinforce our recommendations, and demonstrate that our current strategy is the fastest and safest way to improve returns. I'll now hand over to George to take you through the numbers.