Household HSBC Watch

According to the Star Telegram, three credit cards to avoid are First Premier Bank (the card’s first-year fees add up to $276), HSBC American DreamCard (which has a steep 15 percent to 22 percent APR) and New Millennium Visa or MasterCard (which has no grace period to repay purchases or cash advances before a finance […]

LA in Pennsylvania said: “I work at Sears. You post that Sears is no longer affiliated with HSBC. This is wrong. Sears currently has two banks running their credit cards: Citibank and HSBC. When a customer applies for a Sears Card, his credit report is first run by Citibank. If Citibank approves him, then […]

Bankruptcy laws were changed and strengthened in 2005. Then greedy banksters, mortgage brokers, and lending companies felt safe. They could do whatever they wanted to do, since it was harder to declare bankruptcy. Nationally, the total number of bankruptcies filed in the first half of 2008, however, rose 29.2 percent, to 522,205, […]

With the United States in a recession the double-speak is interesting. Some call the recession of 2000-2001 a “mini-recession.” Now HSBC’s Douglas Flint has a “technical recession.” HSBC finance director Douglas Flint said: “The issue now is the US slowdown and whether it enters a technical recession, and what that does to […]

HSBC said the bank would export the business model of Household International, purchased by HSBC in 2003. As disturbing as it sounds, HSBC bragged about exporting the so-called “Household Model” even though history will show the model as a predatory lender. Subprime losses in the billions of dollars showed a failure. Pragati […]

HSBC is heavily exposed to credit card assets. In that light, it is similar to Capital One, which earlier this year slashed its earnings estimates by over 20 percent due to high default rates and building losses. We see potential for a negative impact to HSBC’s earnings from this exposure as well. HSBC credit […]

“It is clear that growth models in our industry based on high and increasing leverage will no longer be sustainable,” said HSBC chairman Stephen Green. Changes are being made at HSBC, partly to appease Knight Vinke. Don’t tell Green, however, because he wants the world to think it is all his idea. […]

Once again HSBC attracts attention somewhere while trying to get away with something. This time it is not in the Unted States, where HSBC Finance seems to attract more attention than the rest of HSBC around the world put together. GRTU is accusing HSBC and BOV of “abusing their dominant market position and […]

HSBC is in a push to grow its lending to middle-market businesses nationwide by targeting firms that need its international capabilities. Whether these firms (businesses) need HSBC services remains to be seen. We are certain HSBC will then push the businesses for HSBC credit card processing and HSBC merchant - private label - […]

A retired HSBC employee sent this note: “Good luck HSBC. California got Countrywide today for misleading loans. HSBC was exactly the same.” The statement addresses an area we have been studying for over a year. One of the Household - HSBC Watch team members has a Countrywide loan and has […]