UK lawmakers attack HSBC over immigrants

A committee of UK lawmakers criticized HSBC's (0005) treatment of Hong Kong customers who have found it impossible to access their savings after moving to Britain.

The politicians issued a 23-page report yesterday accusing HSBC of aiding the Chinese government's efforts to financially isolate Hong Kong citizens who had left the former British colony.

According to evidence provided to the all-party parliamentary group, HSBC has withheld the release of the Mandatory Provident Fund, saying entry documents provided by the British government to Hong Kong immigrants were not sufficient to unlock their money.

The informal cross-party collective of lawmakers said HSBC was "unjustly" denying its customers access to their own savings.

Alistair Carmichael, co-chair of the group and a member of the Liberal Democrat party, said banks were "doing the dirty work of the Chinese Communist Party."

"This is no longer just about the interpretation of the law, this is about the fundamental rights of an individual to have access to their own property," Carmichael said in a telephone interview. "This is causing genuine hardship for people who have made the difficult decision to leave Hong Kong."

HSBC said in a statement that it respected human rights and "like all banks, we have to obey the law, and the instructions of the regulators, in every territory in which we operate."

The UK opened the British National (Overseas) visa program for Hongkongers in 2021 in response to Beijing's sweeping national security law, but China said it no longer recognizes this type of passport as a valid travel document.

Separately, HSBC's British retail business chief executive Ian Stuart said tens of thousands of its customers could be forced on to mortgage products with an interest rate of 7 percent due to the UK's disastrous mini-Budget last September.

Stuart said that this situation was narrowly avoided after bond markets calmed down in the weeks following the meltdown caused by the short-lived premiership of Liz Truss. HSBC is currently offering a 3.99 percent five-year fixed-rate mortgage.