Some of you may be interested in this. HSBC announced they will shut down 12% of their banks and layoff 50,000 employees. The good news is they see Asia as their growth market so hopefully the Manila and Cebu locations will stay open. They also stated London is becoming difficult to operate their headquarters out of. It would not surprise me to see them move their hq to Hong Kong.
HSCB was great 13 years ago, but the past 4-5 years they have become completely impossible to deal with. They change policies with short notice, and are not late to lock you accounts without prior notice if you don't comply. Have for the past 10 years had a account for the business linked to my private internet banking, without any problem. Even have a HSBC credit card machine attached to it for direct deposit. As we go to Sweden May - Aug I have not yet received a letter mailed last month stating they no longer accept using private accounts for business. Last week all accounts where locked. Couldn't pay out salaries or anything. They have my e-mail, they have a secure message system in the internet bank, but no note was sent that way. Last year was the same. They sent out a form to fill out, and one month later, all accounts where locked. Now I had it with them. When I'm back in Aug second stop, after opening new accounts with another bank will be HSBC to close it all. Hopeless to deal with. It might be a step in their downsizing plans to get rid of customer first :-D
Have had exactly the same problem here,they tell me a form was sent out to me here,then I find out the form was sent to my old UK address! Then they tell me they would ring me to sort option out and I told them the best time was around 10am, until now have still not had any call from them.
I think this is more to do with the tighter banking regulations in the US & Europe, directors salaries, tax avoidance for depositors, and a softer tax regime on bank profits. Hong Kong will become the new Zurich. Asia is the new growth area, so for the bank this would be the ideal base.
There is of course always a knock on and now the UK has things Happening from this issue. They say that what goes round Comes round HSBC brand to disappear from UK's high streets as bank renames branches - Telegraph The Midland was my Bank for many years, Welcome back I would say. ( If I was still there) JP
