Household HSBC Watch

A long list of troubles for HSBC Panama’s General Manager Joseph Salterio grew even longer when newspaper “La Estrella de Panama” recently published an article, “Tras la pista de la Romana, S.A.,” about how the assets of a family rice milling company were allegedly transferred into another company, defrauding the family co-owners. The complainant is Javier Tejeira, a legislator, and a co-defendant named in the criminal fraud complaint is Joseph Salterio, the general manager of HSBC - Panama and also one of the principals in the company that allegedly received the stolen assets.

Things aren’t looking too good for HSBC Panama’s General Manager. Sources say that local bank Banistmo turns out not to be worth what HSBC paid for it, which has upset the London headquarters’ management. To add insult to injury, hundreds of clients have reportedly closed their accounts with Banistmo since the takeover. Most of them previously worked for the US Panama Canal administration, and their pensions were deposited directly in their Banistmo accounts. However, after HSBC took over, it was announced that Banistmo would no longer accept these direct deposits and instead charge a fee for depositing cheques. Clients were not amused and closed their accounts, even when Banistmo/HSBC hastily reversed the measure.