"These good results demonstrate the strength and potential of HSBC. All our global businesses grew adjusted profits and we concluded the transformation programme that we started in 2015. HSBC is simpler, stronger, and more secure than it was in 2011. It has been my great privilege to lead HSBC for the last seven years, and in handing over to John I am confident the organisation is in great hands."

"These results and the achievements of the last couple of years give us a great platform to build on. I am working with the management team and the Board to evolve our strategy and execute it at pace, and I will update shareholders on this work by our half year results. The fundamentals of HSBC will remain the same as they always have - strong funding and liquidity, strong capital, and a conservative approach to credit."

For footnotes, see page 2.

With an international network covering 90% of global trade flows and a leading presence in the world's fastest growing region, we are in a prime position to help our customers capitalise on broad-based global growth.

Our 2017 results demonstrate both the strength and the potential of the Group. A large increase in reported profit before tax reflected both a healthy business and the non-recurrence of significant items from 2016. All of our global businesses grew adjusted profits and our three main global businesses generated improved adjusted revenue.

Strong revenue growth more than covered the cost of business investment, and increased lending laid a foundation for future performance. Asia again contributed a substantial proportion of the Group's profits, particularly in Commercial Banking and Retail Banking and Wealth Management. Together, this delivered an adjusted Group profit before tax of $21bn, up 11% on 2016.

This performance has enabled us to approve an unchanged fourth interim dividend of $0.21. This brings the total dividend for 2017 to $0.51, representing a total shareholder return of 24% for 2017.

As I start my first full year as Group Chairman, I am very grateful to my predecessor, Douglas Flint, and to Stuart Gulliver for ensuring a smooth handover. They steered HSBC through challenging waters during and after the global financial crisis, and renewed HSBC's reputation as one of the world's strongest and safest international banks. They have passed on a strong legacy.

My first responsibility as Group Chairman was to appoint a successor to Stuart who would be capable of building on his achievements while further enhancing the qualities that make HSBC unique. With an exceptional record of managing a diverse range of international businesses and a deep understanding of HSBC's heritage and culture, John Flint was clearly the outstanding candidate. The Board and I look forward to working closely with John and his management team.

2017 also saw other Board changes as we said goodbye to Rachel Lomax, Sam Laidlaw and Paul Walsh. All three provided valuable service and wise counsel to the Board and I thank them warmly for their advice and support. I am especially grateful to Rachel for her excellent work as the Senior Independent Director and to Sam for his thoughtful leadership of the Nomination Committee.

The Board is focused on sustaining resilience by enhancing reputation and performance. We will further develop our strategy to deliver value to all of our stakeholders within a governance framework that provides stability, prudence and effective oversight.

We expect the world's major economies to show reasonable growth in 2018, helped by relatively low unemployment, recovering consumer confidence and improving trade. Fears of a hard landing in China have receded, and markets across Asia look set for a strong year. The anticipated conclusion of large regional trade agreements in 2018, mostly involving Asian nations, also provides cause for optimism. With an international network covering 90% of global trade flows and a leading presence in the world's fastest growing region, we are in a prime position to help our customers capitalise on this broad-based global growth.

While we are optimistic about the prospects for the global economy, rising international tensions, the threat of protectionism and a lack of inclusive growth all have the potential to disrupt economic activity. We continue to model and anticipate a wide range of scenarios as part of our day-to-day risk management, to cover unlikely but not impossible events. As a well-diversified business underpinned by historically stable revenue generation and significant capital strength, HSBC is well equipped to manage the risks and uncertainty inherent in today's world.

Last year, we published a range of environmental, social and governance ('ESG') metrics to enable investors and customers to assess our non-financial performance. The data we disclose will continue to evolve as we learn more about what our stakeholders find useful and improve our ability to collect the necessary information. We will publish our next ESG Update on our website in April 2018.

We are also making our first disclosure under the terms of the Financial Stability Board's Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. This can be found on page 27 of the Annual Report and Accounts 2017. As one of the world's largest international banks, we take seriously our responsibility to help develop a voluntary, consistent and comparable system of climate-related financial disclosure. We intend to continue to expand and improve the quality and specificity of these disclosures, and to encourage all those who work with us to do the same.

It is important not just to achieve good results, but to do so in a way that treats all of our stakeholders - employees, customers, regulators and shareholders - in a fair and transparent way. We are committed to holding ourselves to account in meeting that aim, and to being accountable to our stakeholders for our actions.

As part of this commitment, the Board and I are determined to ensure that HSBC remains a place where all our people have the opportunity to fulfil their potential in a nurturing environment that encourages the right behaviour. Our stakeholders expect honesty and integrity and we will continue to promote a culture in which people do the right thing.

My special thanks are due on behalf of the Board to each of the 229,000 people who work for HSBC around the world. In my short time as Group Chairman I have been enormously impressed by the effort, energies and ability of our people in each country I have visited. These results are a testament to their hard work and dedication.

HSBC is simpler, stronger and more secure than it was in 2011, and better able to connect customers to opportunities in the world's fastest growing regions.

2017 was an important year for HSBC. We completed the transformation programme that we started in 2015, maximising the benefits of our network and increasing our competitive advantages. By the end of the year we had exceeded our risk-weighted asset and cost-saving targets, rebuilt our Mexico business, delivered revenue growth from our international network in excess of global economic growth, and accelerated investment in our operations in Asia. We also opened new businesses and launched products that considerably strengthen the service that we offer our international clients.

These achievements, and the work that preceded them, were a critical factor in delivering a strong financial performance in 2017. The strength of our three main global businesses generated significant increases in both reported and adjusted Group profit before tax ('PBT'), while reported PBT also benefited from the non-recurrence of a number of large significant items from 2016. Adjusted PBT and adjusted revenue were up in four out of five regions. We grew adjusted revenue faster than adjusted costs, and continued to increase our market share in strategic product areas.

Retail Banking and Wealth Management had an excellent 2017, with strong adjusted revenue increases across a number of business lines. In Retail Banking, interest rate rises helped to grow revenue as our robust balance sheet and capital strength continued to attract deposits, particularly in Hong Kong. We continued to grow lending in our target markets, especially Hong Kong, the UK and Mexico. Wealth Management benefited from improving customer investment appetite, strong product sales across all categories and the impact of market movements on our life insurance manufacturing businesses.

Commercial Banking adjusted revenue grew well on the back of an outstanding performance in Global Liquidity and Cash Management. Higher lending volumes helped Credit and Lending overcome the impact of narrower spreads. Global Trade and Receivables Finance revenue stabilised after a difficult 2016 and we increased our share of major markets, including trade finance in Hong Kong and receivables finance in the UK. HSBC was voted market leader for trade finance in Euromoney's annual trade finance survey in January 2018.

Global Banking and Markets grew adjusted revenue, driven particularly by strong growth in Global Liquidity and Cash Management, and Securities Services. Growth in the first three quarters of the year in Markets and Banking enabled both to withstand the effects of subdued market activity in the fourth quarter.

Global Private Banking adjusted revenue reflected the impact of historical repositioning, but was stable over the course of 2017. The business grew adjusted revenue by 10% in its target markets.

Our strong revenue generation meant that the Group achieved positive adjusted jaws in 2017. We accelerated investment to grow the business, particularly in Retail Banking and Wealth Management, which contributed to an increase in adjusted costs. Performance-related compensation also grew in line with profit before tax.

Adjusted loan impairment charges were significantly lower than 2016, mainly due to improved conditions in the oil and gas industry in North America.

Our strong common equity tier one ratio of 14.5% included the effect of recent changes in US tax legislation, which reduced our capital position by 9 basis points. It also included the impact of our most recent $2bn share buy-back. In 2017, we returned a total of $3bn to shareholders through share buy-backs and paid more in dividends than any other European or American bank. We achieved this while maintaining one of the strongest capital ratios in the industry.

The strength of our business is due in large part to the strategic actions that we first announced in June 2015. This programme concluded at the end of 2017 with eight out of ten actions completed on time and on target (see pages 12 to 13 of the Annual Report and Accounts 2017).

HSBC is much more capital efficient and capable of producing stronger returns for investors as a consequence of these actions. Our cost-reduction programmes have enabled us to absorb the cost of growing the business and protecting HSBC from financial crime, while improving the efficiency and security of our processes.

Our previously underperforming Mexico business is increasingly profitable and well positioned for further growth. Whilst our US business remains a work in progress, it is a valuable source of business for other regions and continues to make important progress. We also completed the run-off of our legacy US consumer and mortgage lending portfolio, bringing an end to a difficult chapter in HSBC's recent history.

Our international network is now much better able to connect customers to opportunities and delivering revenue growth above that of the global economy. 53% of client revenue now comes from international clients, up from 50% in 2015. Global Liquidity and Cash Management in particular is now a major component of the bank's success, and Global Trade and Receivables Finance has extended its leadership of the global trade finance market.

The Group's business mix is more oriented towards Asia, improving our ability to channel the economic and social changes taking place within the world's fastest growing region. Asia contributes a larger proportion of the Group's profits than in 2015, reflecting regional investment in growing our loan book, building our insurance and asset management businesses, and connecting customers to opportunities within the region.

We continued to expand our presence in mainland China with the launch of new retail banking products and increased lending in the Pearl River Delta. In December we launched HSBC Qianhai Securities, the first securities joint venture in mainland China to be majority-owned by an international bank. This allows us to offer our clients increased access to China's rapidly expanding capital markets and provides an unprecedented opportunity to establish and grow a securities business in mainland China with strong international standards. This underlines our status as the leading international bank in mainland China.

We won a number of significant new business mandates related to the China-led Belt and Road Initiative in 2017, and opened new China desks in Poland, Luxembourg, Thailand and Macau to capture further opportunities. We now have a total of 24 China desks aimed at supporting Chinese businesses with global outbound ambitions, 20 of which are along the 'Belt and Road' routes. In November we were named 'Best Bank for Belt and Road' at the FinanceAsia Achievement Awards 2017.

The expiration in December of the five-year deferred prosecution agreement that we entered into with the US Department of Justice in 2012 ('AML DPA') was an important milestone for HSBC. Nevertheless, exiting the AML DPA was a product rather than the focus of the essential work that we have done to transform our compliance capabilities and protect the financial system. This work will continue as we seek to ensure that the changes we have made are effective and sustainable. Combating financial crime is a never-ending exercise and will be a constant focus for the Group's management.

As I prepare to pass on the stewardship of HSBC to my successor, I am proud of our achievements of the last seven and a half years. After the most extensive transformation programme in HSBC's 153 year history, HSBC is simpler, stronger and more secure than it was in 2011, and better able to connect customers to opportunities in the world's fastest growing regions. We have also delivered excellent value to shareholders through a higher share price, $64.7bn in declared dividends and $5.5bn in share buy-backs, representing a total shareholder return of 70.3% from 2011 to the end of 2017.

I am pleased to be handing over to such a capable successor as John Flint, whose intimate knowledge of HSBC and its culture will be a considerable asset to the bank and its clients. I am grateful to my colleagues on the Group Management Board for their support since 2011, and to Douglas Flint and Mark Tucker for their backing.

Finally, my sincere thanks go to all of my HSBC colleagues around the world, past and present, whose hard work and commitment are the foundation of the bank's success. It has been my privilege to work with them for the last 38 years.