Stocks Risk Disclosure
- Investment involves risk. You should carefully consider whether any investment products or services mentioned herein are appropriate for you in view of your investment experience, objectives, financial resources and relevant circumstances. The price of stocks may move up or down. Losses may be incurred as well as profits made as a result of buying and selling stocks.
- Frequent trading in stocks will incur greater fees, in terms of brokerage and associated trading costs, notwithstanding the offer of preferential rates, and this may impact your investment returns from trading.
Unit Trusts Risk Disclosure
- Investment involves risks. In the worst case scenario, the value of the funds may be worth substantially less than the original amount you invested (and in an extreme case could be worth nothing).
- Funds which are invested in certain markets and companies (e.g. emerging, commodity markets and smaller companies etc.) may also involve a higher degree of risk and are usually more sensitive to price movements.
- Credit Risk/Interest Rate Risk – a fund that invests in fixed income securities may fall in value if interest rates change, and is subject to the credit risk that issuers may not make payments on such securities. Price of the fund may have a high volatility due to investment in financial derivative instruments and may involve a greater degree of risk than in the case with conventional securities.
- Counterparty Risk – a fund will be exposed to credit risk on the counterparties with which it trades in relation to financial derivative instrument contracts that are not traded on a recognised exchange. Such instruments are not afforded the same protections as may apply to participants trading financial derivative instruments on organised exchanges, such as the performance guarantee of an exchange clearing house. A fund will be subject to the possibility of insolvency, bankruptcy or default of a counter party.
Bonds Risk Disclosure
- Investment involves risks. Bonds are mainly medium to long-term fixed income products, not for short-term speculation. You should be prepared to hold your funds in bonds for the full tenure; you could lose part or all of your principal if you choose to sell bonds prior to maturity.
- It is the issuer to pay interest and repay principal of bonds. If the issuer defaults, the holder of bonds may not be able to receive back the interest and principal. The holder of bonds bears the credit risk of the issuer and has no recourse to HSBC unless HSBC is the issuer itself.
- Indicative prices of bonds are available and bonds prices do fluctuate with market changes. Factors affecting the market price of bonds include, and are not limited to, fluctuations in Interest Rates, Credit Spreads and Liquidity Premiums. The fluctuation in yield generally has a greater effect on prices of longer tenure bonds. There is an inherent risk that losses may be incurred rather than profit made as a result of buying and selling bonds.
- If you wish to sell bonds, HSBC may repurchase them based on the prevailing market price under normal market circumstances, but the selling price may differ from the original buying price due to changes in market conditions.
- There may be exchange rate risks if you choose to convert payments made on the bond to your home currency.
- The secondary market for bonds may not provide significant liquidity or may trade at prices based on the prevailing market conditions and may not be in line with the expectations of holders of bonds.
- If bonds are redeemed early, you may not be able to enjoy the same rates of return when you use the funds to purchase other products.
- Do not purchase the bonds unless you fully understand and are willing to assume the risks associated with it.
Equity Linked Investments (”ELIs”) Risk Disclosure
The following risks should be read together with the other risks contained in the “Risk Warnings section in the relevant offering documents of the ELIs.
- Investment involves risks. You should note that the information contained in this material does NOT form part of the offering documents of our ELIs. You should read all the offering documents of our ELIs (including the programme memorandum, the financial disclosure document, the relevant product booklet and the indicative term sheet and any addendum to any of such documents) before deciding whether to invest in our ELIs. If you have doubt on the content of this material, you should seek independent professional advice.
- Not a time deposit - ELI is NOT equivalent to, nor should it be treated as a substitute for, time deposit. It is NOT a protected deposit and is NOT protected by the Deposit Protection Scheme in Hong Kong.
- Not principal protected – ELIs are not principal protected: you could lose all of your investment.
- Limited potential gain – you may not receive any potential cash dividend amount - The maximum potential gain under this product is capped at an amount equal to the sum of the difference between the issue price and the nominal amount of the ELIs (if any) (less any cash settlement expenses) and the maximum periodic potential cash dividend amount(s) payable during the scheduled tenor (i.e the period from (and including) the issue date to (and including) the settlement date) of the ELIs. It is possible that you may not receive any potential cash dividend amount for the entire scheduled tenor of the ELIs.
- Re-investment risk - If our ELIs are early terminated, we will pay you the nominal amount of the ELIs (less any cash settlement expenses) and any accrued potential cash dividend amount calculated up to (and including) that call date. No further potential cash dividend amount will be payable following such early termination. Market conditions may have changed and you may not be able to enjoy the same rate of return if you re-invest these proceeds in other investments with similar risk parameters.
- No collateral – ELIs are not secured on any of our assets or any collateral.
- Limited market making arrangements are available and you may suffer a loss if you sell your ELIs before expiry - Our ELIs are designed to be held to their settlement date. Limited market making arrangements are available on a bi-weekly basis for all our ELIs. If you try to sell your ELIs before expiry, the amount you receive for each ELI may be substantially less than the issue price you paid for each ELI.
- Not the same as investing in the reference asset – Investing in our ELIs is not the same as investing in the reference asset. Changes in the market price of the reference asset may not lead to a corresponding change in the market value of, or your potential payout under, the ELIs.
- Not covered by Investor Compensation Fund – Our ELIs are not listed on any stock exchange and are not covered by the Investor Compensation Fund. There may not be any active or liquid secondary market.
- Maximum loss upon HSBC’s default or insolvency – Our ELIs constitute general, unsecured and unsubordinated contractual obligations of HSBC as issuer and of no other person (including the ultimate holding company of our group, HSBC Holdings plc). When you buy our ELIs, you will be relying on HSBC’s creditworthiness. If HSBC becomes insolvent or defaults on its obligations under the ELIs, in the worst case scenario, you could lose all of your investment.
- Risks relating to RMB - You should note that the value of RMB against other foreign currencies fluctuates and will be affected by, amongst other things, the PRC government's control (for example, the PRC government regulates conversion between RMB and foreign currencies), which may adversely affect your return under this product when you convert RMB into your home currency. The value of your RMB-denominated ELIs will be subject to the risk of exchange rate fluctuation. If you choose to convert your RMB deposit to other currencies at an exchange rate that is less favourable than that in which you made your original conversion to RMB, you may suffer loss in principal. This product (if denominated in RMB) will be denominated and settled in RMB deliverable in Hong Kong, which is different from that of RMB deliverable in Mainland China.
- You may, at settlement, receive physical delivery of reference asset(s).
- Our ELIs may be terminated early by us according to the terms as set out in offering documents of our ELIs.
- Our ELIs are structured investment products which are embedded with derivatives.
- Investment returns (if any) not denominated in home currency are exposed to exchange rate fluctuations. Rates of exchange may cause the value of investments to go up or down.
- The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited is the issuer and product arranger of our ELIs.
Renminbi (“RMB”) Related Products Risk Disclosure
- There may be exchange rate risks if you choose to convert RMB payments made on the bonds to your home currency.
- RMB debt instruments are subject to interest rate fluctuations, which may adversely affect the return and performance of the RMB products.
- RMB products may suffer significant losses in liquidating the underlying investments if such investments do not have an active secondary market and their prices have large bid/ offer spreads.
- You could lose part or all of your principal if you choose to sell your RMB bonds prior to maturity.
China A Shares Risk Disclosure
- Investment in China A Shares through Shanghai-Hong Kong and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect involves risks. You should carefully consider whether any investment products or services mentioned herein are appropriate for you in view of your investment experience, objectives, financial resources and relevant circumstances. The price of securities may move up or down. Losses may be incurred and profits may be made as a result of buying and selling securities.
- For further information, you should refer to the risk disclosures and other terms set out in the China Connect / Shanghai-Hong Kong and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect Terms and Conditions.
Currency conversion Risk Disclosure
- The value of your foreign currency and RMB deposit will be subject to the risk of exchange rate fluctuation. If you choose to convert your foreign currency and RMB deposit to other currencies at an exchange rate that is less favourable than the exchange rate in which you made your original conversion to that foreign currency and RMB, you may suffer loss in principal.