Household HSBC Watch

Aug. 2 (Bloomberg) — As Cecilia Campillo stood up at Wells Fargo & Co.’s annual meeting in San Francisco on April 26, she was choking back tears. Campillo, 66, a former office manager who lives in Tucson, Arizona, said that Wells Fargo had fleeced her family by charging $8,400 in fees and an 11.7 percent interest rate to refinance a $75,300 mortgage. Addressing Chief Executive Officer Richard Kovacevich, Campillo said the loan’s terms were so burdensome that she feared losing her house. Kovacevich, 61, replied that Wells Fargo doesn’t take advantage of its customers and then moved on to the next speaker.

Citigroup, which struggled last year with regulatory scandals in Japan and Europe and paid the U.S. Federal Reserve a $70 million penalty for misleading subprime borrowers, has seen its stock slide 11 percent between Jan. 2, 2004, and Aug. 2, compared with a 6.2 percent gain in the S&P 500 Financials.

Consumer advocates with Household - HSBC Watch monitor HSBC for predatory lending since HSBC bought the leader in predatory lending nationwide settlements, Household International.