HSBC: the bank that likes to say no to Muslim accounts

[newflesh]

Finsbury Park mosque and other Islamic groups have been told they no longer satisfy HSBC’s ‘risk appetite’. How will the bank brand this one?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/30/hsbc-bank-no-muslim-accounts-finsbury-park-mosque





"It is the “world’s local bank” – or so it tells us. With advertising dominating the departure lounges of international airports, HSBC styles itself as global in reach and personal in service. But recent letters to a number of Muslim organisations and individuals informing them, without any intelligible reason, that the bank no longer wants their business, raises questions about both claims.

On 22 July, the Finsbury Park mosque, in north London – of Abu Hamza fame – got a letter out of the blue telling it that the bank was going to close its account because it was no longer within its “risk appetite”, whatever that is supposed to mean. It is “absolutely not based on race or religion” the bank insists, though no reason other than the Orwellian “risk appetite” comment is given for the move and no contact was made by the bank before the letter dropped through the mosque’s letterbox.

Whatever else this is, it is not the behaviour of a cosy local bank, where a concerned manager would invite you in for a little chat if he had any issues. And the mosque was given no opportunity to address the bank’s “risk appetite” concerns, which has led one of the mosque’s trustees to suggest that “the only reason this has happened is because of an Islamophobic campaign targeting Muslim charities in the UK”. This the bank denies. But in the absence of any other credible explanation, it is understandable how the mosque would reach this conclusion.

Even weirder is a similar letter from HSBC that was sent to Anas Al Tikriti, who runs an Islamic thinktank. This time no explanation whatsoever was given. His wife and two sons – one aged 16, one aged 12 – got a letter too. Whatever the youngest Mr Tikriti has been spending his pocket money on, it’s hard to believe that a small boy falls outside the “risk appetite” of Europe’s largest bank. And especially a bank that was, until recently, perfectly happy with the business of Mexican drug cartels, allowing them to launder their money through HSBC accounts in the Cayman Islands. Not only that, but the same US Senate committee that fined HSBC $1.9bn in 2012, also questioned the bank’s dodgy links with financial institutions in Saudi Arabia that, they believed, were responsible for funding terrorism".

[dKingston]

Maybe because muslim accounts always associated with terrorism. It is not your lose, it is HSBC who lose on this one. There are many other banks around that cater muslims. There are many billionaire muslims why not create your own bank.

[Starscream]

Maybe because muslim accounts always associated with terrorism. It is not your lose, it is HSBC who lose on this one. There are many other banks around that cater muslims. There are many billionaire muslims why not create your own bank.

HSBC actually does cater terrorists.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2012/07/16/hsbc-helped-terrorists-iran-mexican-drug-cartels-launder-money-senate-report-says/

[arbitrage001]

Maybe because muslim accounts always associated with terrorism. It is not your lose, it is HSBC who lose on this one. There are many other banks around that cater muslims. There are many billionaire muslims why not create your own bank.

HSBC actually does cater terrorists.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2012/07/16/hsbc-helped-terrorists-iran-mexican-drug-cartels-launder-money-senate-report-says/

Terrorists that are motivated by hate and not money.

Drug cartels are a lot easier to handle.

[newflesh]

Maybe because muslim accounts always associated with terrorism. It is not your lose, it is HSBC who lose on this one. There are many other banks around that cater muslims. There are many billionaire muslims why not create your own bank.

I can understand banks closing accounts of actual terrorists/organizations, think they have to do that by law anyway. Associating all muslim accounts with terrorism is insanely xenophobic...

[noviapriani]

So, HSBC will actively help South American drug cartels launder their money (and it's a matter of public record), but they'll stop normal Muslims from banking there.

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how they spin this.

[bryant.coleman]

They are perfectly justified if they closed the bank account linked to the Finsbury Park mosque. That particular religious institution is very infamous in England, and it was where the notorious preacher Abu Hamza delivered his sermons. And also, they have closed only a dozen or so accounts. Millions of Muslims still own accounts in HSBC. 

[zolace]

Banks are businesses that can choose their customers. All businesses can stop supplying existing customers if they want to and most never given a reason for doing so to avoid problems. No bank has to accept looking after your money if it doesn't want to. Lots of people who aren't Muslims have had their accounts closed because the bank didn't have "a risk appetite" for the kind of customer they think they no longer want... i.e. a small business which might go overdrawn from time to time for whom they don't want to give an overdraft facility or provide a term loan, or someone with a CCJ or someone with a bad credit score or someone with something wrong who has the same name. Stuff happens and the systems these days are run by faceless intransigent unthinking apparatchiks who couldn't give a hoot about the problems caused switching banks and who are virtually contactable by either phone, email or letter (none of which are answered usually).

[Rigon]

They are a private lending business...they should have the right to choose with whom they do - or do not - do business, shouldn't they? No matter how inane we may think their risk assessment procedures to be.
And, in an era of no-real-growth, few investment opportunities, next-to-no borrowers who are both creditworthy and willing, and a flood of fake, printed "money", perhaps the cost of one more account is simply prohibitive...

[Nathonas]

So, HSBC will actively help South American drug cartels launder their money (and it's a matter of public record), but they'll stop normal Muslims from banking there.

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how they spin this.

Of course, it's all about good business my good man! It's nothing personal, it's only money.

[maurya78]

Big difference between accounts of suspected terrorists and ordinary muslim citizens
My understanding always has been that HSBC runs a global business with significant economic interests in the muslim world