Nichols Kaster & Anderson sued HSBC again last week for wage and hour violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and California laws. Advocates at Household – HSBC Watch received many reports in the last quarter of 2007 that supported allegations made by employees dismissed during a drawdown at HSBC Finance, HFC, and Beneficial. The suit is no surprise to the advocacy organization. “It has not been a good week for HSBC” said the organization.
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The governor of Ohio is trying to reach an agreement with subprime lenders. Ohio has been hit with high foreclosure rates. Governor Ted Strickland said recently “While the majority of the nine lenders said in their agreements how much notice they would give borrowers before a rate reset, some — such as HSBC and Carrington — do not have clear guidelines.” Why does that not surprise me? My initial thought is that there are no clear guidelines, strict or otherwise, within HSBC Finance in general. Nobody really knows who is in charge or who is responsible for controlling the actions of employees.
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With regard to homeowners in trouble I can see congress saying “no bailout” to everyone, or having a very narrow definition of who gets any help, such as those who were victims of fraud. Unless the buyer can show fraud on the part of the financial institution, the courts have no authority to change the terms of the contract. Republicans and 10 Democrats defeated a proposal to let bankruptcy judges ease the terms of subprime loans. Victims then turn to the issue of fraud. Everyone knows when they were lied to, although sometimes it takes time to discover the truth. It seems like Household International, Ameriquest, and now HSBC are the ones with a track record. They are the ones that should worry when it comes to proving fraud. Nationwide predatory lending settlements speak for themselves.
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HSBC was awarded a GBP 1 million grant in 2006 to create jobs in Scotland. Instead HSBC is closing a payment processing center in Livingstone, Scotland, leading a loss of 164 jobs. HSBC officially says the people can find other jobs in Scotland. I doubt that many would move to Edinburgh and other locations if they don’t need to. Will HSBC give the money back? Does the reduction in force actually save HSBC any money? Will HSBC be held to task on this?
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We missed this article for some reason, but a reader called our attention to it this morning. The man who conspired with the vice president of an HSBC Bank in Brooklyn has pled guilty to numerous crimes, including conspiracy, bribery and solicitation to commit a crime of violence. Once again money laundering surrounds HSBC, and it is not the first time. IRS and FBI investigators posing as Russian mobsters got to the bttom if this crime. But Gerald Nimberg had some morals. When he asked mobsters to do a little “collection work” for him, Nimberg said he did not “want to be in the middle of it, if there’s gonna be anything beyond the beating.” Was this for collections on HSBC accounts? See the entire article written by Ryan Thompson here. I’m sure you will enjoy it unless you have an HSBC account in Brooklyn, are opposed to mobsters, or are concerned about money laundering.
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Legal Info
Household HSBC Watch is a watchdog and consumer advocacy organization.
We monitor customer trends for possible violations of Regulation Z and other possible illegal actions.
We use your individual HSBC complaints and merchant complaint reports to perform trend analysis.
We are not associated with HSBC, Household International, or their merchants.
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