Household HSBC Watch

We received this report today. That is all we are going to say about the origin.
“I am unfortunately a current employee of HSBC working in the HFC division. Let me say that I apologize to all of you out there that have unknowingly fallen into the hands of this evil company. As […]

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 […]

What always puzzled me was the company’s lack of introspection. Rather than attacking the root of the lack of the production (high rates, high fees, poor customer service), upper management always shifted the blame on the sales representatives. Employees were told that they were not aggressive enough, or that they did not sufficiently […]

Some of us remember when Wachovia was a small North Carolina based bank. This week Wachovia hired investment bank Goldman Sachs to advise it of its options on its decimated loan portfolio. Wachovia said that Goldman will “perform analytics on our loans to evaluate various alternatives. One does not think of Wachovia as […]

AK in Oregon sent this op-ed piece. We are publishing it here instead of in our complaints blog:
“HSBC- predatory lenders who slam insurance, offer over market rates and fees, and treat employees with disrespect.

When I started working at HFC I was just out of college. I was excited to have a job […]

Knight Vinke, the activist investor, launched a fresh attack on HSBC yesterday, accusing Europe’s biggest bank of flattering its US sub-prime losses by failing to write down $30 billion (£15 billion) worth of mortgage assets. Knight Vinke may have a point, as HSBC claims to have US losses under control, while almost every other […]

One fact everyone knows about HSBC Finance Corporation, a subprime division of HSBC, is the company will not modify or change anything willingly. When HSBC says they modified 11,900 sub-prime mortgages, valued at $1.9bn, that were due to reset to punitively high rates this year it was not done willingly. HSBC Finance has […]

Reuters is reporting that HSBC intends to open new branches - bank branches, not HFC and Beneficial Finance branches - across the United States. Quoting Kevin Martin, executive vice president of HSBC Bank USA, the bank inteneds to open new branches with a focus on New Jersey, California and Washington D.C. Plans […]

Citigroup Inc., HSBC Finance Corp. and seven other companies agreed to help delinquent homeowners in Ohio avoid foreclosure in the first such accord between a state and home-loan servicers, Governor Ted Strickland said. Like alcoholics that keep drinking, the companies pledged to make an effort. Banks and other lenders pledged to modify terms […]

HSBC and activist investor organizaiton Knight-Vinke have been challenging each other for quite some time. This past weekend Knight-Vinke said “‘The dismissive comments in your letter conveyed a worrying degree of complacency. I hope this is just a matter of tone and not of substance.” The same United States division of HSBC […]