Who has been interogated by the "HSBC safeguard initiative"

Yes but I have not property in uk and not resident there so can not open a UK
account and feel that I need one.
But if they close our accounts we will manage…but it will be unfair…and without
reason.

Barbara - I don’t have property in the UK and am not resident there either! There are other ‘players’ these days - all after your business. One of them is Revolut - they are an app based provider and you can have a Sterling UK account (i.e. with UK sort code / account number) and card/s (both real and virtual). I also use BUNQ who are good as well. Failing that there is Transferwise (online and/or app based) with their borderless accounts.
Lots of choice out there - just a question of shopping around.

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Will look into those ideas.
Thank you.

Anybody knows how strict are they on the requirement that the (lawyer, certifier, etc) has to be from the list they provide?
In Korea they only list one who is in Seoul, my city is 4 hours away.

Well we could use a lawyer or a banker!
Our bank helped willingly knowing the ins and outs
of our transactions. Just about every one thought that
it was all a scam including our bank.

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My bank would not do it, if it has nothing to do with them.

Hi Barbara,

I was also interrogated by HSBC safeguard. It was very intimidating, they asked me very personal questions too, like how much money I make per year, per month… if I have my own house or if I rent a place. When I said I was abroad they even asked me who is in my house at the moment, who else lives with me. They asked about my job, and made detailed questions like what is it about? They asked the name of my company, the number of transactions that I would do in the whole year… and much, much more. It was around 1 hour of interview. It felt like those interrogations in the airport when crossing board control.

It was very invasive. I would even say that it was disrespectful, as they didn’t leave me with the option to NOT answer those questions once I agree with it in the beginning - before it all started. I asked many time Why are you making these questions? And the only answer I got was “it’s for your security”. My security???
I also received a letter in which they even threaten me saying that if I didn’t provide my details they would set limitations to my account, like restricting the amount of money that I can withdraw and transfer. They are putting into question my integrity, as if I was being judge in a court for a crime - to which I’ve been having to proof that I’m innocent! They inverted the logic… as if “I was guilty until I prove the opposite”. This is violating our rights.

Now HSBC is asking me to certify my proof of address, and for this I’d have to pay a lawyer or solicitor (which they say they will pay me back) and go through a major bureaucracy, which in my case would include travelling to a big city to find one of the offices listed by them. Which I contacted and they all said that they don’t provide the service required by HSBC - these are the lawyers recommended by HSBC itself! So HSBC gave me a second option, for my other bank to certify my address, and my bank said the same as the lawyers… that it cannot do the certification as it is required by HSBC - which also requires detailed information about the lawyer, solicitor or employee from the bank.

This all seems very problematic to me, and suspicious. Why is HSBC collecting all this data from its clients? It looks like an intense information collection and control!! Maybe to sell this information to others? To who? I don’t know, but I don’t trust them at all and am also closing my account - and moving to a more ethical bank :wink:

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Check out this article:
“HSBC: Answer the questions or leave us”

Good morning.
Yes you have described the exact pattern of events which too place with me during a period of a year.
What is bazaar is the fact that the organisation which organises the investigations into banking procedure and regulates dealings with clients initially said that I had a case and then said “no”.
I have since learnt that this organisation has “junior” staff who often do not know or care about the innocent bank user who becomes a victim.
It is hard enough dealing with the Brexit mess without going through such a violation of my privacy as if I were a spy!
The investigator needs to be investigated.
However I have one bank in UK and I feel that I want to keep one…what is the option?

Barbara, thank goodness we do not bank with HSBC.
Have you heard this morning that Commonwealth Bank in Australia have been charging fees to dead customers?
One person had been dead for ten years.
Now, in my simple way , I cannot understand how this can happen, unless they were appointed as executor, in which case they must have known that these peopke were dead.
Where is the island where decent people can go to escape all these disgusting politicians, media folk and greed merchants?

Paradise lost Jane!
That is the name of the island.
My Island …and yours has been destroyed by greed.

We have both worked hard to be here in France, doing hard jobs and making sacrifices on the way.
Himself actually worked as a consultant for government in procurement, saving millions for the taxpayer.
There is a double standard that criticises the heads of large schools or even groups of schools that turn them around from failing to successful and says nothing about the ridiculous amount of money paid in football and entertainment.
We live in a topsy-turvy world.

We do indeed live in a topsy - turvy world where the fairly bad get rewarded and the good get abused in some way or another.

Hey there,
HSBC UK client here. I’ve been asked to do the same BUT…
I opened an HSBC Bank account in 2015 and asked for this Safeguard thing in early 2017. In 2018, they sent me a letter again to repeat the same process (60min with an agent on the phone). However, I didn’t realize its a yearly process and when I knew I got furious. So I decided to give them a hard time with angry phone calls and messages asking for a manager to call me until they gave up on me and so far they let me alone. (probably because no one wanna deal with an angry client lol)

They keep claiming that this’s for everyone & it was just ‘‘my turn’’ as one of the replies suggested above. I’m a new arrival to the UK and I’ve decided to ask my BRITISH cousin/ uncle if they’ve received such calls/letters and they said never! (they’ve got HSBC accounts before I even had any bank account at all) .

My own Conclusion:
It’s a bullying calls and yes you’re being chosen BUT what’re the criteria they’re looking for? I’m not quite sure yet…maybe your status in the country being a temp resident/ refugee/ not British in essence or overseas international transactions you’ve done? But what I’m %100 sure about is NOT everyone has received or will receive these calls /letters at any point.