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September 25, 2014 
Daniel Lee Douglas Flint, HSBC’s chairman, appears to have had a ‘light-bulb’ moment!
The boss of one of the most heavily fined banks in the world seems to want his bank to turn over a new leaf. Speaking recently at the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments (CISI) launch to try and persuade financial service staff to become ‘whistleblowers’ and to speak up about violations of their company polices, it sounds like he’s changed his ways.
Flint has backed up a campaign called “Speak Up” that urges financial staff to voice their opinions on corporate wrongdoings. He claims that delayed whistleblowing can be seen as sinister by outsiders to the industry.
Whilst the headlines appear positive, will Mr Flint back up his claims and put plans in place to remove the barriers in place that currently deter staff from raising issues?
Executives and senior management decide on salary and bonus structures within a business. They also determine the environment in which staff work in.
By placing emphasis on, and encouraging a bonus led culture where basic salaries are low and heavily subsidised by sales led bonuses, they are creating an environment that, whether directly or indirectly, inevitably leads to manipulation, mis-selling and breaches of regulation.
Furthermore, by putting in place bonuses for management based on the performance of frontline staff, this encourages management to ‘turn a blind eye’ to regulatory breaches as there are financial gains to be had via bonuses, and senior management to please by hitting targets set.
It is specifically these types of set-ups that have led to two huge mis-selling scandals. The first one we probably have all heard about, the PPI scandal. The second is following hot on the heels of PPI, and it’s the mis-selling of Packaged Bank Accounts.
It’s all well and good Mr Flint, to be speaking out and claiming you want whistleblowers to come forward to report issues, but actions speak louder than words and you must create an environment that allows staff to feel comfortable in doing so.
Ask yourself a question…Would you feel comfortable raising concerns to your manager if your basic salary was barely enough to make ends meet, if you were heavily reliant on your bonus, if your performance affected your managers bonus, if your performance affected your managers’ managers’ bonus, if you risked losing your job for raising a concern, if you risked losing your job for not hitting your target? It’s hardly conducive to creating an open and trustworthy environment is it.
Flint, a close personal friend of the CISI chairman Alan Yarrow, told the audience of his ideal that financial service staff must feel comfortable in speaking out to their manager if they feel the company is exploiting customers or if they notice any wrongdoings in the companies polices. He claimed to recognise there is a huge problem and the well-being of staff should be hugely important. He continued to say that staff who do voice their opinions on the behaviour of the banks, should be celebrated not condemned.
Mr Flint said that if whistleblowers didn’t come forward then the bank could become toxic. Actions do rapidly become toxic, due to some financial staff being given more money than others in bonuses. Bonus money to mis-sell products such as PPI and Packaged Bank Accounts.
Reportedly, the US Securities & Exchange Commission has paid out a whopping $150 MILLION to the whistleblowers of corporations. With this, some have become millionaires by making other people exploit innocent customers. We would welcome such an organisation in the UK to encourage employees to step forward with concerns.
Many employees have been punished for speaking up against wrongdoings to their bosses. There is a huge risk in all job sectors to speak out, in some cases against your boss, due to the high chance of losing your job or being ostracised by fellow colleagues. The CISI recognise this and have announced plans to set up a “financial hardship fund” which would ensure financial safety to any who wishes to speak up and become whistleblowers about wrongs they see in their workplace.
Douglas Flint’s speech continued, trying to discuss how banks should be run. However, he failed to mention that HSBC, his very own bank, where fined £1.2 BILLION in 2012 by American authorities for allowing Mexican drug cartels to launder money via HSBC’s branch network. He also failed to mention his banks part in the huge PPI mis-selling scandal, in the Packaged Bank Account scandal, and about the numerous fined imposed on HSBC for serious regulatory failings.
Douglas Flint claims he has noticed his own wrongdoings and quite clearly spoken out about them, maybe he is trying persuading others to do the same.
Our opinion is that it’s too little, too late. Whisteblowers should be encouraged to come forward by providing a safe and secure environment to do so. You’ve had many chances to put that in place and you’ve failed Mr Flint.
Your actions, and that of your bank and other lenders, has led to BILLIONS being illegally taken from your MILLIONS of customers.
It’s time for customers to fight back.
Your Money Claim are the industry experts in claiming mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance and Packaged Bank Accounts.
Your Money Claim deals with banks such as HSBC every day of the week, and we are used to beating them!
We can carry out all the checks via our fast-track system to see whether you’ve been sold PPI, or a Packaged Bank Account and we deal with the case every step of the way. So, whether your account / loan / mortgage / credit card is still active, or if it’s settled some time ago, we could help.
Start your claim today.
Whistleblowers
June 8, 2015 Daniel Lee With the new introduction of a fast-track bank account switching service, allowing customers to switch bank accounts within 7 days, one million have taken advantage of the service and changed banks.
Whilst this is good news on the face of things, could the banks be taking advantage of those who are choosing to switch by mis-selling them a Packaged Bank Account?
Banks are having to start to fight for customers like never before. Whereas in the past when people chose who to bank with, that was generally who they stuck with throughout life, people are starting to pick and choose and move their money where they’re going to receive the best terms at any given time.
It’s true that banks are still not really delivering what we as a nation should be expecting, so much so that the banks are facing a full scale competition enquiry due to suspicions that our banks are liaising with each other to ensure real competition and offers do not enter the market.
However, we are starting to see small signs, very small signs, that a new generation of banks may be about to shake up the market and offer long term attractive incentives for customers to move their accounts.
Only time will tell whether the UK finally sees some real competition in what is clearly a failing market.
With banks previously having to reduce the amount it was charging customers for going into an unauthorised overdraft, banks needed to come up with a new way of replacing that revenue that was being lost. Whilst bank charges remain higher than payday loan charges, banks did find a way of making more money out of it’s every day customers.
The introduction of Packaged Bank Accounts has generated the banks BILLIONS in profits. A monthly fee in exchanged for ‘perks’ such as mobile phone insurance, travel insurance and vehicle breakdown cover to name a few, has proven to be a real money spinner for the banks at the expense of the customer. Now where have we heard that before? The PPI scandal perhaps?!
We’ve researched the figures that are available and we believe compensating customers for the mis-sale of these Packaged Bank Accounts could cost the banks £BILLIONS. With 10 MILLION of these accounts still active, and being sold on a daily basis, it’s thought to affect 1 in 5 UK adults.
So, whilst we welcome the fact that people are starting to shop around where they place their bank account, we urge caution that you don’t fall foul to the new mis-selling scandal.
With millions of these accounts being sold historically you could make a claim, even if the account is no longer active.
Your Money Claim are the industry experts in mis-sold PPI and mis-sold Packaged Bank Accounts. Dealing with your case from first to last, carrying out the checks and dealing with the banks, you can sit back safe in the knowledge that your claim is being handled by the experts.
So, why delay, let Your Money Claim look after your case.
Bank account
September 24, 2014 Daniel Lee Earlier in the year, we did a piece on Barclays mis-leading their customers and giving an unfair edge to high speed traders and how a lawsuit resulted in a fall in the bank’s “dark pool trading” venue of 79%.
It’s come to light that they could be facing up to £1.2 billion extra in legal costs and fines as they’re battling to settle the investigation which was started against them by the New York Attorney general.
This has all come about after Barclays PPI bill hit a staggering £5 billion to cover the costs of the PPI that they’ve been mis-selling.
In the second quarter of this year, the bank has already set aside more than £1.2 billion, £900 million for mis-sold PPI and the rest to cover other “legacy” matters. With the dark pool investigation still on-going, an analyst at Sanford C Bernstein has stated that they may need to start looking at setting aside yet more money to cover continuing costs.
In order to settle the fraud allegations that they’re facing relating to the “dark pool trading”, they are looking at having to pay up to £200m. This is the same case that we brought to you earlier in the year with claims that the bank was taking part in a “flagrant pattern of fraud, deception and dishonesty with Barclays clients as well as the investing public”.
On top of this, they are faced with a potential £700m charge to deal with the fallout from an industry wide investigation into the manipulation of the currency trading market which saw as much as $5.3 trillion traded every single day.
They could also be facing a £300m charge in the coming months. This is to compensate customers who were mis-sold products that were meant to help them hedge interest rates. In the midst of all these possible fines, the Barclays’ chief executive, Antony Jenkins has come out and said that they’re working hard to settle all outstanding legal issues and to put all of this behind them.
One thing that won’t be going away any time soon for Barclays is the PPI mis-selling scandal. Payment protection insurance was widely mis-sold by all of the banks, not just Barclays. If you think you have a PPI claim, you can download one of our PPI claim forms here and send it back to us and we’ll start your claim immediately.
Barclays Dark Pool
September 24, 2014 Daniel Lee You should be well aware by now that the banks in this country are consistently finding that they’re being fined for one thing or another. Recently, the majority of the fines have been for Payment Protection Insurance (PPI).
That isn’t saying that all of the bank fines have been for PPI, there’s been a number of other banks that have been fined for different things. For example, Royal Bank of Scotland was fined £15 million for their poor mortgage advice.
The likes of Barclays, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank are among the banks that could be liable to face “material and widespread” fines for a variety of mis-conducts like the rigging of currency rates and, for the likes of Barclays, the mis-selling of PPI.
All of this information has come from Fitch Ratings who have said that other top banks around the world like Credit Suisse and Bank of America are amongst the banks that could be facing further fines and could well be exposed to ‘litigation and other conduct risks’.
It’s not new news that all around the world; banks are struggling to restore consumer confidence after the financial crisis began in 2007/08. That much has been evident in the last few years and the banks have made it much worse for themselves with the PPI mis-selling scandal coming to light too.
Bringing the news a bit closer to home and stepping away from talking about global banks, there is going to be change at Santander, the UKs fifth biggest lender.
The former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Nathan Bostock will be appointed as the new chief at Santander as Ana Botin has left the bank recently to become the group executive chairman of Banco Santander following her father’s death, Emilio Botin.
Santander has set aside almost £1 billion for the mis-selling of PPI and this is including the bank’s subsidiaries such as Alliance & Leicester and Abbey National. Shortly after this announcement was made, the then chief exec of the bank, Ana Botin came out and stated that she was happy with the state of the bank’s financial figures.
This is a much smaller amount when compared to the money set aside by the other banks such as the Lloyds Banking Group which includes the likes of Halifax and Bank of Scotland and it also pales in comparison to the likes of Natwest, RBS, Barclays and HSBC.
All of these banks plus a great number of other lenders have all mis-sold PPI on a huge scale in this country and it’s no surprise to see the likes of Barclays included in the list of major banks that can expect to receive fines in the coming years.
If you think you may have been mis-sold PPI or you know someone who may have been mis-sold PPI, why not start your claim with us today. If you think you know someone who may have been mis-sold PPI, why not use our refer a friend scheme?
Big Bank Fines
September 23, 2014 Daniel Lee You may remember earlier this year, in June Lloyds floated the TSB side of the bank and thus became known as just Lloyds instead of Lloyds TSB. This equated to the bank selling 38.5% of the group at a cost of 260 pence (£2.60) per share.
Well, Royal Bank of Scotland is gearing up to go a similar way to Lloyds. They’re looking at floating their US business at a valuation thought to be up to $14bn (£8.5bn).
The top dogs at RBS’ US branch are set to receive a hefty pay-out when their business receives what is expected to be a $9m when the sale starts this week.
The floating of Citizen’s Financial Group, which is expected to get underway this week, will net the bank a cool $4bn (£2.4bn) which will be a welcome boost to their capital position.
Bruce Van Saun, the former RBS finance director who was made the chief executive of Citizens last year is also set to receive a big pay out as part of IPO related compensation and there is also four other executives who are set to receive their share of $4.1m.
The way that these bonuses/payments will be shared out is a mix of a convertible bond and RBS shares. The RBS shares will also be able to be converted in to Citizens shares when the company floats, allowing the execs to sell their shares.
So, you may be wondering what this means for us back over here in the UK. Well, the bank have announced that they plan on selling off 161m shares in Citizens which is a 29% stake and they plan on selling the shares off between $23 and $25 per share.
You may already be aware that the bank is already 80% owned by the taxpayer and they’re planning on selling off Citizens by the end of 2016, by which time it is expected that the Government will have begun selling off its own stake in RBS.
According to 69% of leading institutional investors, they believe that the treasury will begin selling off shares in the bank next year. This alludes to the fact that the economy is getting back to a healthy state and the treasury obviously believes that it can make some money from the sale of the bank’s shares.
This still doesn’t take away from the things that are going on right in our own back yard though. For example, RBS being fined £15m for false mortgage advice, or what about the likes of Lloyds and HSBC to name but a few adding to their PPI bill which in a space of 6 weeks, just earlier this month led to the total PPI bill increasing by a staggering £3 billion.
There’s much still going wrong over with the banks in this country. The next big mis-selling scandal is on the rise at the minute too. Packaged bank account claims hit an estimated 17,000 complaints in 2014 but that has significantly increased.
Claims Management Company
October 23, 2014 Daniel Lee HSBC, formally known as The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, was founded on March 3rd in 1865 by a Scotsman called Sir Thomas Sutherland in the British Colony of Hong Kong. It relocated it’s headquarters from Hong Kong to London in 1993 during the period that Hong Kong’s sovereignty switched from the UK to China.
HSBC is now the world’s second largest bank, with 6,600 offices spread across 80 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and North and South America and has 125 million customers alone.
HSBC has consistently acquired smaller banks over the course of the last few decades. Possibly two of the banks we in the UK may be most familiar with would be Household Finance Corporation (HFC), and First Direct.
First Direct is an internet and telephone banking company with it’s headquarters in Leeds, offering current accounts and loans.
In 2004 First Direct introduced ‘First Directory’ to their customers, a system where services would be added to current accounts including such things as annual travel insurance and mobile phone insurance, for a fixed monthly charge. This is now commonly known as a Packaged Bank Account.
First Direct have consistently been voted for as the bank with the best levels of customer service. However, this could all be about to change as mis-sold Packaged Bank Account claims increase as they are doing at a rapid rate. Check to see if you may qualify to make a claim if you pay a monthly fee for your account.
HFC are one of the major players in offering consumer loans and store credit.
On the 16th of January 2008 HSBC owned division Household Finance Corporation (HFC) were fined £1.09 million due to treating the customers unfairly when selling Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). The regulator said that between 2005 and 2007 HFC sold PPI with 75% of loans, exposing 163,332** customers to paying for PPI without consenting to.
HSBC has played its fair part in the recent, and not so recent, scandals that have swamped the United Kingdom, with HSBC PPI claims reaching the millions since it was discovered they’d mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance and Packaged Bank Accounts, something which HSBC suspended sales of earlier this year.
In 2011 the Financial Services Authority (FSA) issued their largest fine at the time to HSBC because they had been offering inappropriate investment advice to their elderly customers. The £10.5 millions fine was issued due to advice given to 2,485 customers, some of whom were left with no investments. HSBC estimated the compensation pay out would reach approximately £30 million.
British Multinational bank Corporation HSBC were been fined £1.9 BILLION in 2012, as they had reportedly failed to prevent Mexican drug lords and cartels laundering money through their bank accounts. Would you feel comfortable banking with such people?
Could you have been mis-sold PPI or a Packaged Bank account by HSBC, First Direct or HFC? Millions have.
With our NO WIN NO FEE* service you can rest assured that it’s in our best interest to do all we can in order to secure you an offer of compensation.
Moreover, we deal with you claim from first to last, every step of the way. From checking whether you’ve had PPI by obtaining information from HCBC regarding all of your accounts via our fast-track system, to seeing whether you may qualify. We then deal with your bank or lender every step of the way so you can sit back and relax, knowing we are working on your case, using our professional expert team.
So, don’t delay, make your claim today.
HSBC PPI Claims
