HSBC Bank (Europe)

In 1989, the Midland Bank launched First Direct, the pioneer of telephone banking, with a person-to-person service available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It continues to operate as a division of HSBC UK. It now offers internet banking as well and serves more than one million customers. By 2004, First Direct had established a position as the United Kingdom's most recommended bank.[10] As of 2020, results of surveys commissioned by the Competition and Markets Authority showed it continued to be the most recommended UK bank.[11][12]

Household International established HFC Bank as consumer finance business in the UK in 1973, it became one of the largest consumer finance companies in the UK before Household was acquired by HSBC in 2003. HFC Bank provides retail credit to many leading national retailers and is the largest point of sale loan provider in the UK. The business focuses on retail finance through branches and direct channels, and co-branded and loyalty credit cards. Some of the key brands are the recently relaunched Beneficial Finance (with around 160 branches) and marbles. HFC Bank has around 3.5 million customers.

As a result of the Household acquisition, the UK group gained expertise allowing it to enter joint ventures and contracts with more high street names, such as taking over Marks and Spencer's financial division, now M&S Bank, on a partnership basis in 2004 and the John Lewis Partnership Card contract.

The bank was established as a closed joint stock company under the name Midland Armenia Bank J.S.C. on 1996 and has been renamed into HSBC Bank Armenia cjsc on 1999. The bank is a joint venture between the HSBC Group, which has a 70% ownership, and members of overseas Armenian businesses with 30% ownership. It is one of the leading banks in the foreign exchange market. HSBC Bank Armenia cjsc offers a wide range of products and services to individual as well as corporate customers in Armenia and abroad. The bank is the member of SWIFT and Bankmail payment systems.

HSBC Bank plc is undertaking a significant expansion in Eastern and Central Europe, with the Czech Republic the first country to offer Personal Financial Services. The operations are focused on HSBC Premier.

HSBC France has operated around 800 branches in France since the takeover of Credit Commercial de France, primarily operating under the HSBC brand. HSBC France is now the HSBC Group's lead bank in the Eurozone, focusing on certain capital market products for a global audience, and high-net-worth and international business in France.

HSBC Bank Georgia opened its doors for business in Tbilisi in June 2008. HSBC Bank Georgia jsc is a locally licensed joint venture between the HSBC Group, which has 70% ownership, and members of overseas businesses who hold 30%.

HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt AG was founded in 1785 and is one of the longest-established members of the HSBC Group. It has operations in private, commercial and investment banking and asset management.

HSBC Greece was established in 1981, and is one of the largest foreign banks in Greece.[13] As of 2019, it has 15 branches in Greece, mainly within Athens.[14]

HSBC Bank plc and a number of subsidiaries have operations in insurance, reinsurance, securities services and a newly established consumer finance business. The fund management business had assets in excess of US$20bn as of 2006.[15]

HSBC Bank Malta plc is the largest bank in Malta. It is a listed company but its majority shareholder is the HSBC Group. Formerly the "Mid-Med Bank", HSBC Bank Malta is the second-longest established bank in Malta.

HSBC Private Bank is the Swiss operating subsidiaries of the group's Private Banking business, with 20 locations in the country. Much of the private banking business takes a lead from work done in Switzerland, with a total of 74 locations around the world operating solely for private banking business.

HSBC Bank A.S. is now the fifth largest private bank in Turkey, having expanded through internal financing and via acquisition since entering the market in 1990. The bank has a network of around 336 branches, offering products and services to corporate, commercial and personal customers, both under the HSBC brand as well as the Advantage brand.

In July 2007, HSBC suddenly withdrew its interest-free overdrafts for graduates. Students graduating that year discovered that they were to face unexpected bills of up to £140 a year.[16] Students mobilised protests using the social networking website Facebook and in August, HSBC reversed their policy,[17] freezing overdraft charges to recent graduates and pledging to repay charges deducted in August while holding talks with the National Union of Students.

In April 2008, HSBC confirmed the loss of unencrypted data disks containing life insurance policy details for 370,000 customers.[18] In February 2011 HSBC sent a letter dated 11 February to an unknown number of recipients, stating that they were "writing to inform you of the potential compromise of some of your former account information with us." The date and extent of the loss were not given; however, HSBC offered a year's enrolment to ITAC Sentinel and advised vigilance for 12 to 24 months, as well as recommending contacting the three major credit bureaus to place a fraud alert on the credit profile.

In 2008, HSBC were accused of 'cultural insensitivity' in an advertising campaign featuring an overweight white man dressed to look like a Sumo wrestler. The campaign upset members of Britain's Japanese community who claimed the man's skin tone was darkened and makeup was applied to narrow his eyes.[19] HSBC denied making the model appear to be from a specific country or region but admitted makeup was applied and skin tone was tanned.[20]

In December 2008, the British anti-poverty charity War on Want released a report documenting the extent to which HSBC and other UK commercial banks invest in, provide banking services for and make loans to arms companies. The charity writes in its report that HSBC holds shares in the global arms industry totalling £450.6 million, and serves as principal banker for Meggitt, one of the UK's largest arms companies. The report also details HSBC's dealings with known producers of cluster munitions and depleted uranium munitions.[21]

In 2012, the U.S. government uncovered a "blatant failure to implement proper anti-money laundering controls facilitating the laundering of at least $881 million in drug proceeds through the U.S. financial system".[22] The bank also violated US sanctions by conducting business in countries on US blacklists, including Iran, Libya, and Cuba.[23]

The bank paid a $1.9 billion fine and entered into a 5-year Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the US Department of Justice. A US Congressional report revealed that the UK government had intervened in the investigation to warn against prosecution, advising that it would have "very serious implications for financial and economic stability", and that the US Attorney General decided not to prosecute the bank as a result of its "systemic importance" to the global financial system.[23]

In 2014, HSBC closed North London Central Mosque's account and some Muslim clients' and groups' accounts.[24][25][26][27][28][29] Several sources reported that HSBC closed them because they donated their money to Palestine during the recent conflict.[30][31] The bank claimed that continuing to provide bank accounts would be outside of their "risk appetite" and said the decisions were "absolutely not based on race or religion" but declined to comment on individual cases.[32]

In February 2020, HSBC announced their plan to lay off more than 35,000 jobs worldwide as their profits for 2019 dwindled by a staggering 33%.[33] The company’s interim chief executive, Noel Quinn, announced that the company was planning to scale back its headcount from 235,000 to around 200,000 by 2023. This 35,000 job losses represented about 15% of the company’s workforce.

In June 2020, HSBC ended a year-long policy of refusing to comment on the protests in Hong Kong. Protests had been ongoing over the increasing control that China had been attempting to assert over Hong Kong, through the imposition of new national security laws. In a statement, HSBC said that it "respects and supports all laws that stabilise Hong Kong's social order’".[34] The move was widely seen as backing China in the dispute, and was criticized by the United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, calling the bank's policy a "corporate kowtow". The move was also commented on by United Kingdom Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg, saying that HSBC may be more closely "aligned with the Chinese government than Her Majesty’s Government”.