HSBC deserves to have its banking charter revoked, plain and simple. While America was in a turkey stuffing-induced slumber, HSBC proved through its treatment of Brett King, arguably one of the world’s most forceful proponents for banking innovation, that it does not understand what it means to behave in a responsible fashion. And that means it does not deserve its banking charter. To recap, King was on his way to his New York home from the airport on Friday morning when he tried to use his HSBC Debit Card, which is linked to his business account. The card was rejected. Thinking it was some sort of fraud stop, he called HSBC, whereupon he was told that his business account was closed. That that business account is presumably attached to King’s banking startup, Moven, or to his consulting business, which aims to help banks become better at banking, makes the episode all the more ironic. From here, King’s story gets, as someone said on Twitter, Kafka-esque. King says HSBC never notified him that the account would be closed. You may recall that HSBC essentially decided last September to “fire” a large swath of its small business customers, by closing their accounts. [...]
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