The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is a massive banking business.

http://www.hsbc.com

The annual report is very detailed.

http://www.hsbc.com/~/media/hsbc-com/investorrelationsassets/annual-results-2014/hsbc-holdings-plc/annual-report-and-accounts-2014.pdf

This is a huge bank. The figures are incredible, but what is very interesting is the levels of debt that bank carries.

Debt securities in issue $95,947 million.

The bank has a bond issuance programme

http://www.hsbc.com/investor-relations/fixed-income-securities/issuance-programmes

That it uses to raise extra cash to fund its business. That cash from the bond issuance programme can be used to generate loans for businesses or perhaps to fund other operations.

http://www.hsbc.com/investor-relations/fixed-income-securities

These are all the bonds on issue.

So the bank carries $95,947 million = £67,271 million.
That is £67.2 Billion

At first that seems a lot of debt, but lets keep things in perspective.

http://www.hsbc.com/investor-relations/fixed-income-securities/credit-ratings#All Entities|All rating agencies|All rating types

Highly creditworthy.

Cash and balances at central banks $129,957 million = £91,116 Million
That’s £91 billion

Customer accounts $1,350,642 = £946,975 Million
That’s £946 Billion.

The bank’s asset base is huge