Household HSBC Watch

The following HSBC press release is somewhat deceiving. There is no HSBC Bank in Prospect Heights Illinois. Prospect Heights is home to HSBC Finance Corporation, formerly known as predatory lender Household International. Perhaps Mr. Bruce J. Hammersley and Civis Financial Group would like you to think otherwise, judging by the press release.

In fact executives above Hammersley were fired for cause, retail services is actually HSBC Retail Services, and is the main source of complaitns in our ‘live complaints’ section. What should be interesting to his new company are the results from our poll which asks credit card holders to rate their HSBC credit card. HSBC Finance Company issues those cards. HSBC Retail Services processes card transactions. Both have miserable ratings.

Decide for yourself. Is this misleading:

June 18 /PRNewswire/ — Bruce J. Hammersley, 43, has joined Civis Financial Group as president and chief executive officer, effective immediately. Hammersley will also join the Company’s board of directors, increasing its size to six members. Hammersley previously served as managing director - business development retail services for HSBC Bank, Prospect Heights, IL.

Now here is the link to the full press release. The link opens in a new window so you can see what we are talking about. He held a variety of finance, marketing and management positions and in 1995 was named Director of HFC Business Initiatives. HFC and Beneficial Finance were, by 2002, the subject of the largest predatory lending settlement in the Untied States.