HSBC Demands to Know How Customers Spend Their Money

Who needs tax authorities keeping tabs on people when banks are increasingly taking on a similar role?

An HSBC customer who wrote to economist Martin Armstrong related how the bank, which itself was culpable of acting as a conduit for “drug kingpins and rogue nations” in 2012, is now interrogating its account holders on how they earn and spend their money.

I just got a call from HSBC Jersey conducting a ‘risk assessment’. They wanted to know why I had 6 different currency a/c’s & where all the money came from as well as how much money I earn in Asia & how I spend the cash. The funny thing is I only keep GBP 1,000 in the HSBC a/c’s anyway!!!!

I managed to speak to a ‘manager’ & asked if he knew how much HSBC were sued for last October, he had no idea HSBC even had a case brought against them. Accordingly every expat is being interrogated as to what they use their money for while HSBC can continue it’s blatant misuse of funds.

The story is yet another illustration of how major banks are beginning to function more and more as spies for the state, quizzing their customers on their income and spending habits while demanding paperwork and explanations for them to take out their own cash.

In January it emerged that HSBC was restricting large cash withdrawals for UK customers from £5000 upwards, forcing them to provide documentation of what they plan to spend the money on, a form of capital control that more and more banks are beginning to adopt.

As we reported back in November, Chase Bank also recently imposed restrictions which prevent its customers from conducting over $50,000 in cash activity per month, as well as banning business customers from sending international wire transfers.

In the same month it was also reported that two of the biggest banks in America were stuffing their ATMs with 20-30 per cent more cash than usual in order to head off a potential bank run if the US defaults on its debt.

The recent spate of unusual banker suicides and mysterious deaths has also prompted concerns that the financial system isn’t as healthy as it is being portrayed by the mass media.

When journalists Pam Martens and Russ Martens attempted to uncover whether the deaths, which seem to be concentrated amongst JPMorgan Chase employees, were a statistical anomaly, they were told by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) that the information was being withheld because it pertained to “trade secrets”.