Why is no-one talking about HSBC?

Jonbvn

bubblesmoney wrote: »

but in ordinary branches in uk or india you cant access your account from another hsbc account in the other country.

If you are a premier customer you can access your other accounts in another country including India ONLINE.

http://www.hsbcpremier.com/1/2/hsbcpremier/en/global-view

michaels

I still have more than 50% equity in my house so the risk of losses to HSBC were I to default is still negligible. HSBC offered me my mortgage deal in Feb 08. The libor spread over base is not much wider than it was then (60bps more for at 3 months) but the spread between the hsbc svr and the base rate has widened by 169 basis points - I call that profiteering. I would not have taken a rate linked to an svr but the salesperson pointed to the long history of keeping the svr within 1.25% of base rate (and indeed there was previuosly an explicit commitment to be within 1% hence those with longerr standing hsbc mortgages having a different svr to the rest of us.

matbe wrote: »

They may be the listening bank,but they are not the listening charity, they still need to at least break even and possibly even make a profit.


If more banks had made a profit we would'nt be in this goddamn mess.


You cant blame a bank for being sensible.

When will people learn banks are there to make money not friends.

Generali

Wookster wrote: »

Where I worked before this job, we did all sorts of work with (and reporting on) banks and investment banks and it was clear that HSBC was the typical boring bank. If HSBC was a person they wouldn't have left an impression when you met them, you might have even forgotten.

Also they didn't seem to be caught up in the massive big salary & bonus game that other banks played.

I think it all goes down to a conservative culture, which they obviously had.

They used to pay some pretty handsome bonuses to the fee earning staff. They were very good at poaching an entire desk. That's where you get an entire team to move from another bank to come to work for you. As you can imagine, that's incredibly damaging to your competitor bank and great for you as lots of the desk's clients will come with them.

The usual way to do that is to guarantee a minimum level of bonus for the first year or two. The guarantee is generally set very high.

gt94sss2

michaels wrote: »

I still have more than 50% equity in my house so the risk of losses to HSBC were I to default is still negligible. HSBC offered me my mortgage deal in Feb 08. The libor spread over base is not much wider than it was then (60bps more for at 3 months) but the spread between the hsbc svr and the base rate has widened by 169 basis points - I call that profiteering.

What you are missing is that HSBC's SVR is probably still (among?) the lowest and there is a lot less competition now then there was a year ago..

Regards
Sunil

zcacmxi

As far as I can see, there are some MAJOR and SIGNIFICANT differences between HSBC & the likes of RBS and the other failed banks:

1) HSBC did not enter in to a bidding war at the top of the market and buy another bank like ABN AMRO for $100 Billion.
2) HSBC grew over a decade ago, completing many of its major purchases before the boom. E.g. Midland in UK, Demirbank in Turkey, CCF in France.
3) HSBC savings deposits cover what they lend without being completely reliant on wholesale markets.
4) HSBC were a cautious lender during the boom years. They were allowing customers to borrow from Northern Rock, etc and not trying to compete with them.
5) HSBC are a huge global bank. They are well diversified. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSBC
6) HSBC make Billions of profit annually, even when any one particular area makes a loss.

michaels

gt94sss2 wrote: »

What you are missing is that HSBC's SVR is probably still (among?) the lowest and there is a lot less competition now then there was a year ago..

Regards
Sunil

So I am not arguing that raising your margins when there is less completion makes good business sense but it could not be seen as treating your locked in customers fairly. The SVR is currently almost 1% above market leaders like Nationwide.

Generali

michaels wrote: »

So I am not arguing that raising your margins when there is less completion makes good business sense but it could not be seen as treating your locked in customers fairly. The SVR is currently almost 1% above market leaders like Nationwide.

What does fair mean in business terms? A bank and a customer freely enter into a contract. Both sides stick to the contract provided it's legal.

It looks like banks are going to be prevented from offering 'free' banking by levying excessive charges on the disorganised. Fair enough, the bank is acting illegally.

Surely not every bank has to offer a market beating rate on every product at all times though.

michaels

Generali wrote: »

What does fair mean in business terms? A bank and a customer freely enter into a contract. Both sides stick to the contract provided it's legal.

It looks like banks are going to be prevented from offering 'free' banking by levying excessive charges on the disorganised. Fair enough, the bank is acting illegally.

Surely not every bank has to offer a market beating rate on every product at all times though.

All true but if you pay a bank a large sum of money to be on a market leading rate based on their historic practice (10+ years?) of having a competitive mortgage rate (which they mentioned prominently in their literature) and they then decide they no longer need to be competitive it is not surprising that you feel a bit aggrieved.

gt94sss2

michaels wrote: »

So I am not arguing that raising your margins when there is less completion makes good business sense but it could not be seen as treating your locked in customers fairly.

What lock in do you have?

I thought lots of HSBC mortgage customers could move their mortgage at any time without penalty...

Regards
Sunil

udydudy

Hey guys do not worry, or rather should i say we should all worry????

The difference in HSBC is that they are a lot well entrenched in emerging economies, especially Asia. Asia's time will come in a few months. Its all a matter of lagging behing various economies.

UK politicians kept harping about how strong our economy was and that we had beaten the "Boom-Bust" Cycle for good, until Oct 2007, all this whilst US was in doldrums.

The fact of the matter is US leads the world, UK follows around 6-9 months later, Europe follows in another 6-9 months and then the rest of the world. So by that logic Europe is about going down in the next few months and the focs will then shift there. another few months and Asia wil go Bust. Obviously the signals are there in terms of slowing growth rates, etc, etc.

Once that happens all the resilience that HSBC is showing will fall away. Though of course it does not mean it is in the same league as RBS & HBOS who frittered away money by lending to all n sundry. Lloyds is just a victim of arrogance on the part of UK politicians.

HSBC is a lot stronger than RBS and HBOS but they will also get hit once Asia and SOuth eats Asia wilter away.