Household HSBC Watch

This time state attorney’s general are asking HSBC Finance for something other than evidence of predatory lending. They are asking for help. What will be the result if requests are ignored? History shows that HSBC Finance was Household International, which was purchased by HSBC in 2003. Prior to that Household was […]

In a lesson plan, designed to teach about predatory and subprime lending, we asked this question of students in 2005: “What is the impact on a country’s economy if predatory lending is left unchecked?” Three years later the answer is clearly obvious. As of today the world has seen over $515 billion […]

Stephen Green of HSBC seems to lack an overall understanding of HSBC Finance. Speaking to the BBC, Mr Green commented: “There has been far too much focus on payments that are very short-term focused, people who pick up the tab for short-term profits, without having to bear the costs of long-term impairments.” Sorry […]

In the US Banker section of American Banker, we spotted an interesting line: “The concern was, ‘How much subprime do you do? What is your risk of having what Household (International) had?’” It was a question asked of Richard Davis, CEO of U.S. Bancorp, in February 2007. HSBC bought Household in […]

ZDNet Australia, which covers business technology news, reported that HSBC was considering ditching the BlackBerry and switching 200,000 employees to the iPhone. We did not report it because it was not important, other than spending shareholder money for 200,000 of the darned things. However, the original article looked professional, quoting HSBC’s Australia and […]

HSBC made the news again. This time it was an article about home equity lines of credit — or the fact that such credit lines are frozen or gone all together. When Denise Lopez bought two new tables, a floor lamp and a chair recently, her intent was to finance it with her […]

With foreclosures on the rise, billions in losses, and hundreds out of work as HSBC closes branch offices and their auto finance business, here is a “fresh” idea from HSBC. Let them listen to music. It is similar to “let them eat cake” but with a twist. ( Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote, “At […]

In February 2008 Niall Booker became Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Finance Corporation. He will also succeed Brendan McDonagh as Chief Operating Officer of HSBC North America. In March 2007 HSBC Holdings appointed experienced and long-serving banker Niall Booker as chief operating officer, according to a company statement. Is Booker experienced in consumer […]

China and India have been growing at steady paces, but some have pointed to a possible bubble. Already, China has shown its weakness as pretax profit for HSBC in China fell 41% to $907 million. Meanwhile, shares in Korea Exchange Bank, HSBC’s newest target, have fallen as much as 12%. For now, HSBC remains devoted […]

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 […]