HSBC Continental Europe Universal Registration Document and Annual Financial Report 2024 Contents 4 Highlights 5 Presentation of activities and strategy 13 Consolidated Results 21 Other information 22 Corporate Governance report 52 Statutory Auditors‘ special report on related-party agreements 55 Sustainability Statement 164 Risk 240 Consolidated financial statements 248 Notes on the consolidated financial statements 323 Statutory Auditors’ report on the consolidated financial statements 328 Parent company financial statements 333 Notes on the parent company financial statements 359 Statutory Auditors‘ report on the financial statements 366 HSBC Continental Europe’s principal subsidiaries and investment policy 370 Proposed resolutions to the Ordinary General Meeting to be held on 24 March 2025 371 Information on HSBC Continental Europe and its share capital 375 Persons responsible for the Universal Registration Document and for auditing the financial statements 377 Cross-reference table 380 Network of offices Universal Registration Document and Annual Financial Report 2024 1 Presentation of information This Universal Registration Document was filed on 19 February 2025 with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (‘AMF’), as the competent authority under Regulation (EU) n°2017/1129, without prior approval in accordance with Article 9 of that Regulation. The Universal Registration Document may be used for the purposes of an offer to the public of securities or the admission of securities to trading on a regulated market if supplemented by a securities prospectus and if necessary, a summary of and any amendments to the Universal Registration Document. These documents are subject to approval by the AMF according to Regulation (UE) n°2017/1129. Declaration (Annex II – 1.2) The current Universal Registration Document was filed with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (‘AMF’), as the competent authority under Regulation (EU) n°2017/1129, without prior approval in accordance with Article 9 of that Regulation. The current Universal Registration Document may be used for the purposes of an offer to the public of securities or the admission of securities to trading on a regulated market if it is approved by the AMF including any amendments, and supplemented by a securities prospectus and a summary hereof as approved according to the regulation (UE) n°2017/1129. Reference to the Registration Document This document, named Universal Registration Document, refers to the Universal Registration Document (Annual Report and Accounts) filed with the AMF on 1 March 2024 under reference number D.24-0076. Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements The Universal Registration Document 2024 contains a number of forward-looking statements with respect to HSBC Continental Europe’s contribution to the HSBC Group’s ESG ambitions, targets, commitments, and HSBC Continental Europe’s climate-related pathways, processes and plans, and the methodologies and scenarios it uses, or intend to use, to assess its progress in relation to these (‘ESG-related forward- looking statements’). Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the HSBC Group’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 no undue reliance should be placed on them. Forward-looking statements apply only as of the date they are made. HSBC Continental Europe makes no commitment to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring or existing after the date of any forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that a number of factors, including ESG-related factors, could cause actual results to differ, in some instances materially, from those anticipated or implied in any forward-looking statement. In preparing the ESG-related information contained in the Universal Registration Document 2024, HSBC Continental Europe has made a number of judgements, estimations and assumptions, and the processes and issues involved are complex. HSBC Continental Europe has used ESG (including climate) data, models and methodologies that HSBC Continental Europe considers, as of the date on which they were used, to be appropriate and suitable to understand and assess climate change risk and its impact, to analyse financed emissions and operational and supply chain emissions, to set ESG-related targets and to evaluate the classification of sustainable finance and investments. However, these data, models and methodologies are often new, are rapidly evolving and are not of the same standard as those available in the context of other financial information, nor are they subject to the same or equivalent disclosure standards, historical reference points, benchmarks or globally accepted accounting principles. In particular, it is not possible to rely on historical data as a strong indicator of future trajectories in the case of climate change and its evolution. Outputs of models, processed data and methodologies are also likely to be affected by underlying data quality, which can be hard to assess and HSBC Continental Europe expects industry guidance, market practice, and regulations in this field to continue to change. HSBC Continental Europe also faces challenges in relation to its ability to access data on a timely basis, lack of consistency and comparability between data that is available and its ability to collect and process relevant data. Consequently, the ESG-related forward-looking statements and ESG metrics disclosed in the Universal Registration Document 2024 carry an additional degree of inherent risk and uncertainty. Due to the unpredictable evolution of climate change and its future impact and the uncertainty of future policy and market response to ESG- related issues and the effectiveness of any such response, HSBC Continental Europe may have to re-evaluate its progress towards the HSBC Group’s ESG ambitions, targets and commitments in the future, update the methodologies it uses or alter its approach to ESG (including climate) analysis and may be required to amend, update and recalculate its ESG disclosures and assessments in the future, as market practice and data quality and availability develop. Presentation of information 2 Universal Registration Document and Annual Financial Report 2024 No assurance can be given by or on behalf of HSBC Continental Europe as to the likelihood of the achievement or reasonableness of any projections, estimates, forecasts, ambitions, targets, commitments, prospects or returns contained herein. Readers are cautioned that a number of factors, both external and those specific to HSBC Continental Europe, could cause actual achievements, results, performance or other future events or conditions to differ, in some cases materially, from those stated, implied and/or reflected in any ESG-related forward-looking statement or metric due to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors (including without limitation those referred to below): – Climate change projection risk: this includes, for example, the evolution of climate change and its impacts, changes in the scientific assessment of climate change impacts, transition pathways and future risk exposure and limitations of climate scenario forecasts; – ESG projection risk: ESG metrics are complex and are still subject to development. In addition, the scenarios employed in relation to them, and the models that analyse them have limitations that are sensitive to key assumptions and parameters, which are themselves subject to some uncertainty, and cannot fully capture all of the potential effects of climate, policy and technology-driven outcomes; – Data availability, accuracy, verifiability and data gaps: HSBC Continental Europe’s disclosures are limited by the availability of high quality data in some areas and its own ability to timely collect and process such data as required. Where data is not available for all sectors or consistently year on year, there may be an impact to its data quality scores. While HSBC Continental Europe expects its data quality scores to improve over time, as companies continue to expand their disclosures to meet growing regulatory and stakeholder expectations, there may be unexpected fluctuations within sectors year on year, and/or differences between the data quality scores between sectors. Any such changes in the availability and quality of data over time, or HSBC Continental Europe’s ability to collect and process such data, could result in revisions to reported data going forward, including on financed emissions, meaning that such data may not be reconcilable or comparable year-on year; – Developing methodologies and scenarios: the methodologies and scenarios HSBC Continental Europe uses to assess financed emissions and set ESG-related targets may develop over time in line with market practice, regulation and/or developments in science, where applicable. Such developments could result in revisions to reported data, including on financed emissions or the classification of sustainable finance and investments, meaning that data outputs may not be reconcilable or comparable year-on year; and – Risk management capabilities: global actions, including HSBC Continental Europe’s own actions, may not be effective in transitioning to net zero and in managing relevant ESG risks, including in particular climate, nature-related and human rights risks, each of which can impact HSBC Continental Europe both directly and indirectly through its customers, and which may result in potential financial and non-financial impacts to HSBC Continental Europe. In particular: – HSBC Group may not be able to achieve its ESG ambitions, targets and commitments (including with respect to the positions set forth in its thermal coal phase-out policy and its energy policy, and its targets to reduce its on-balance sheet financed emissions and, where applicable, facilitated emissions in its portfolio of selected high-emitting sectors), which may result in its failure to achieve some or all of the expected outcomes of its strategic priorities; and – HSBC Continental Europe may not be able to develop sustainable finance and ESG-related products consistent with the evolving expectations of its regulators, and its capacity to measure the environmental and social impacts from its financing activity may diminish (including as a result of data and model limitations and changes in methodologies), which may affect HSBC Continental Europe contributing to the HSBC Group’s ability to achieve its ESG ambitions, targets and commitments, including its net zero ambition, its targets to reduce its on-balance sheet financed emissions and, where applicable, facilitated emissions in its portfolio of selected high- emitting sectors and the positions set forth in its thermal coal phase-out policy and energy policy, and increase the risk of greenwashing. Any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of HSBC Continental Europe speak only as of the date they are made. HSBC Continental Europe expressly disclaims any obligation to revise or update these ESG forward-looking statements, other than as expressly required by applicable law. The HSBC Group’s data dictionaries and methodologies for preparing the above ESG-related metrics and third-party limited assurance reports can be found on: www.hsbc.com/who-we-are/esg-and-responsible-business/esg-reporting-centre. Universal Registration Document and Annual Financial Report 2024 3