Household HSBC Watch

We received this information today and we thank the submitter. They know who they are. “As a former long time HSBC employee and manager, I continue to hear a great deal of internal information from sources in the know. I’ve had 3 separate and unrelated sources tell me since Monday this week that yet another large round of ‘optimization’ or branch closings as most of us would call it is in the works. Sources told me between 100-300 more branches are to be closed and consolidated by end of Q3. This would put the total HFC and Beneficial branch count in the 700 range when it’s done. About 1/3rd its size just a 2 years ago.”

Editor’s note: Just this week HSBC announced the end of auto financing, and HSBC Canada “purchased” HSBC Finance Ltd. A few weeks ago an analyst discovered two HSBC holding companies previously undisclosed to the SEC. In addition, lawmakers sent a request to HSBC mortgage servicers to halt foreclosures until October 2008. Relative to HSBC Merchant Services, another merchant - Boscov’s - declared bankruptcy. HSBC and Best Buy are under investigation relative to Account Shield and debt cancellation. HSBC Chairman Michael Geoghegan, is making his annual world tour of HSBC locations. What will Geoghegan say and do when he gets to the United States? We should know very soon.