Contingent liabilities, contractual commitments and guarantees

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2021

Other Provisions, Contingent Liabilities And Contingent Assets [Abstract]

Contingent liabilities, contractual commitments and guarantees

12 Contingent liabilities, contractual commitments and guarantees

	At
	30 Jun	31 Dec
	2021	2020
	$m	$m
Guarantees and contingent liabilities:
– financial guarantees	27,274	18,384
– performance and other guarantees	80,641	78,114
– other contingent liabilities	838	1,219
At the end of the period	108,753	97,717
Commitments:1
– documentary credits and short-term trade-related transactions	9,201	7,178
– forward asset purchases and forward deposits placed	72,916	66,506
– standby facilities, credit lines and other commitments to lend	764,768	771,086
At the end of the period	846,885	844,770

1    Includes $661,373m of commitments at 30 June 2021 (31 December 2020: $659,783m), to which the impairment requirements in IFRS 9 are applied where HSBC has become party to an irrevocable commitment.

The preceding table discloses the nominal principal amounts of off-balance sheet liabilities and commitments for the Group, which represent the maximum amounts at risk should the contracts be fully drawn upon and the clients default. As a significant portion of guarantees and commitments are expected to expire without being drawn upon, the total of the nominal principal amounts is not indicative of future liquidity requirements. The expected credit loss provision relating to guarantees and commitments under IFRS 9 is disclosed in Note 11.

The majority of the guarantees have a term of less than one year, while guarantees with terms of more than one year are subject to HSBC’s annual credit review process.

Contingent liabilities arising from legal proceedings and regulatory and other matters against Group companies are excluded from this note but are disclosed in Notes 11 and 13.