Monday HSBC said it has no plans to sell its U.S. household lending operation HSBC Finance Corp. and that it is still restructuring the business. Following a report that HSBC was “informally” considering spinning off or even selling HSBC Finance, which has taken loan impairment charges of nearly $18 billion since the start of 2007, a spokesman said “we have no plans to sell HSBC Finance.” Too late guys, since it already costs more to reinsure your debt. Denying it now is not going to help. With $42 billion in losses, and $14 billion paid for HSBC Finance (Household International), the cost of acquiring HFC and Beneficial has been tremendous.
“HSBC Finance Corp. is currently working through a restructuring that will position it for the long-term and ensure that it is properly aligned with the needs of the U.S. consumer,” the bank said in a statement Monday. “The major components of this are already in the public domain and the project proceeds as planned.”
I’m sorry, but HSBC will need to change the name, get rid of the Internet, censor things like China does, and restructure the entire business before anybody other than Paris Hilton could even dream of the business being anything but a high cost shady operation. Regardless of the new name, and even with HUD approved prime loans, why would anybody take the chance? Today people just want to mail their payment 10 days early without getting a late fee. Is that too hard too figure out? People still report down-time on the HSBC online payment website. How hard is that to prevent?
It looks like consumer advocates and watchdogs will have jobs for a long time to come.
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