Household HSBC Watch

HSBC Holdings Plc fell by the most since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on concern that a possible U.S. economic recession may hurt demand for loans and financial services. HSBC has fallen 21 percent this year as shares of financial services companies plunged worldwide on concern that more losses related to the U.S. subprime […]

The chief of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp warned on Thursday that if industry solutions fail to help subprime mortgage borrowers, the odds of government involvement will increase. President Bush is already talking about a Reagan-style tax rebate. Nancy Pelosi and her Democrats are in no position to argue. The entire idea […]

An identity theft ring that involved the personal information of 10,000 credit card holders was busted in New Jersey, federal authorities said today. Four men arrested by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are expected to be arraigned at 2:15 p.m. this afternoon in federal court in Newark. A fifth suspect is at large. […]

HSBC has been accused of imposing a stealth charge of £25 on customers who go over their agreed overdraft limit. £25 is about $50 (USD). HSBC claims the charge is fair because it covers the time taken to review the customer’s account, but campaigners say it is a device to get round the […]

HSBC Finance is a “pay for performance” company, which means they look out for their best interests, not yours. It also means that mortgage loans in the U.S. followed the same “pay for performance” guidelines. That is part of why we have a subprime crisis today. Here is the report from the […]

H&R Block Inc on Wednesday said its Block Financial LLC unit obtained a $3 billion credit line from HSBC Finance Corp, which will be used to fund loans for some taxpayers who expect refunds. Just last week we reported that the IRS says such loans can perpetuate fraud. For two companies that […]

Bloomberg, Forbes, and many others are reporting today that HSBC dropped the most in six years in Hong Kong trading on concern it may have to increase provisions for U.S. bad loans after Citigroup Inc. reported a record loss. Although we monitor HSBC and report the news we take no joy from it. […]

HSBC should have learned from Household International when it comes to insurance packing. Britain’s financial watchdog has fined HFC Bank, part of banking giant HSBC Holdings, 1.085 million pounds ($2.12 million), its largest penalty to date, linked to the sale of payment protection insurance (PPI). We wrote an article yesterday about HSBC embarassments […]

Many questions are unanswered at HSBC. Is there another round of job cuts at HFC and Beneficial? Will HSBC sell HSBC Auto? Are credit card losses increasing? How much is the fourth quarter write-down? How many subprime loans violated HOEPA? What are the legal ramifications? But the main […]

As for HSBC, Goldman said a U.S. recession and a 20-25 percent drop in United States property prices would lead to “unnerving prospects for HSBC”. These could include 70 percent of the bank’s sub-prime loans falling into negative equity, and further possible provisions of $13 billion (USD) on top of the $4 billion already […]