Financial crime is a growing global issue and is estimated to cost the UK economy £37 billion per year*. Today’s reality is that up-to-date information is a critical weapon for all banks in the fight to prevent criminals from accessing the financial system.
At HSBC, we’re committed to fighting financial crime. As part of our work in this area, we’ve implemented an on-going programme to update and validate the information we hold on all business customers. Having a deep understanding of each customer – what they do, where they do it, who they do it with and who benefits – is a key part of our ability to detect and deter attempts to defraud that customer, to launder money, to breach sanctions or to evade taxes.
As part of this programme, we’re asking our customers to provide information about themselves and the nature of their business or organisation. We typically allow 3 months for this process to be completed for each customer. We do everything we can to explain what information we need and when we need it by – communicating with customers through letters, emails, internet banking banners and phone calls. It’s important these requests are responded to in a timely manner so the information gathering process can be completed. The process is iterative, and we sometimes may need to ask for additional information as we conduct our reviews. We’ve made it easier for our customers to contact us by adding to our dedicated Call Centre team.
We’d like to thank all business customers who have provided information we’ve asked for in a timely and comprehensive manner.
Where we haven't received all the information we need, as a last resort, we sometimes have to restrict banking services or close an account. Clearly this is not our preferred outcome and we appreciate it may cause disruption for our customers.
If your business has experienced problems with our requests, or if you have any questions about an information request you’ve received from us, please contact us on: 0800 030 4516.
When you hear from us please don’t delay in responding. We thank you for your on-going understanding and co-operation.
