HSBC UK Bank Plc · DRN-6055708

The complaint Mr G and Ms M complain that HSBC UK Bank Plc (“HSBC”) closed their account without notice. What happened Mr G and Ms M had a joint current account with HSBC, which they opened in February 2025. They have explained that they used the account to pay for expenses relating to the care of their son. In June 2025, HSBC decided to review Mr G and Ms M’s account. Whilst it completed its review HSBC blocked the account. Following this HSBC decided to close Mr G and Ms M’s account immediately. Mr G and Ms M discovered there was a problem with their account when Mr G tried to log into the account online and Ms M’s bank card was declined when she tried to pay for shopping. Mr G and Ms M complained to HSBC. Mr G said HSBC should have let them know it had blocked the account and the account was important to them as they used it to support their son. Mr G explained that he was facing a malicious prosecution, and he believed HSBC were using this an excuse to debank him and Ms M. In response, HSBC said it had reviewed and closed Mr G and Ms M’s account in line with the terms and conditions. And its legal and regulatory obligations. HSBC also said it wasn’t obliged to provide Mr G and Ms M with an explanation behind its decision to close their account. Mr G and Ms M remained unhappy, so they referred their complaint to this service where one of our investigators looked into Mr G and Ms M’s complaint. After looking at all the evidence, the investigator said HSBC hadn’t done anything wrong. Mr G and Ms M disagreed. Mr G and Ms M want to be told why HSBC closed their account without notice. They want their account reopened and compensation. As no agreement could be reached the matter has come to me to decide. What I’ve decided – and why I’ve considered all the available evidence and arguments to decide what’s fair and reasonable in the circumstances of this complaint. I would add too that our rules allow us to receive evidence in confidence. We may treat evidence from financial businesses as confidential for a number of reasons – for example, if it contains information about other customers, security information or commercially sensitive information. Some of the information HSBC has provided is information that we considered should be kept confidential. This means I haven’t been able to share a lot of detail with Mr G and Ms M, but I’d like to reassure them that I have considered everything.

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I appreciate that Mr G and Ms M are upset that HSBC closed their account. And the lack of information about the reasons behind the decision made the situation more frustrating. But for me to uphold this complaint, I must be satisfied that the bank has done something wrong. And in this case, I don’t think it has. I’ll explain why. As the investigator has already explained, HSBC has extensive legal and regulatory responsibilities they must meet when providing account services to customers. They can broadly be summarised as a responsibility to protect persons from financial harm, and to prevent and detect financial crime. HSBC will review accounts to comply with these responsibilities. It’s common practice for banks and other financial service providers to restrict access to accounts to conduct a review. This can happen regardless of how long a customer has been with a bank. The terms and conditions of Mr G and Ms M’s account also make provision for this to happen. Having reviewed all the evidence, including the information HSBC has shared with us in confidence, I’m satisfied that HSBC were acting in line with its legal and regulatory obligations when it reviewed Mr G and Ms M’s account. I appreciate that Mr G and Ms M want to know more about why HSBC did what it did. But HSBC isn’t obliged to tell Mr G and Ms M why it reviewed their account, and I don’t believe it would be appropriate for me to require it to do so as much as they’d like to know. Sometimes following a review, a bank will decide to close an account. HSBC is entitled to close an account with Mr G and Ms M just as they are entitled to close their account with HSBC. It’s generally for banks and financial businesses to decide whether or not they want to provide, or to continue to provide, banking facilities to any particular customer. Unless there’s a very good reason to do so, this service won’t usually say that a bank must keep a customer or require it to compensate a customer who has had their account closed. But they shouldn’t decline to continue to provide an account without proper reason, for instance of unfair bias or unlawful discrimination. And they must treat new and existing customers fairly. HSBC have relied on the terms and conditions of Mr G and Ms M’s account when closing it. The terms and conditions outline that HSBC can close a customer’s account with two months’ notice, and in certain circumstances they can close an account immediately. Here they closed Mr G and Ms M’s account immediately. For HSBC to act here they needed to meet the criteria to apply their terms for immediate closure HSBC has provided some further details of its decision-making process, I’m sorry but I can’t share this information with Mr G and Ms M due to its commercial sensitivity. But I’ve seen nothing to suggest HSBC’s decision around closing Mr G and Ms M’s account was unfair. So, it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to ask HSBC to pay Mr G and Ms M compensation since I don’t find HSBC did anything wrong when it closed Mr G and Ms M’s account. I’m also satisfied that HSBC closed Mr G and Ms M’s account in line with the terms and conditions. Whilst I acknowledge Mr G’s pursuit to get absolute clarity, about why HSBC ultimately decided to close his account, HSBC do not have to be explicit in their reason, so, I find no error was made here. In summary, I recognise how strongly Mr G and Ms M feel about what’s happened. I don’t doubt it has been a frustrating and worrying time. So, I realise Mr G and Ms M will be disappointed by my decision. But, overall, based on the evidence I’ve seen, I can’t say

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HSBC have acted unreasonably and treated them unfairly in taking the actions it did. So, I won’t be asking HSBC to do anything more to resolve Mr G and Ms M’s complaint. My final decision For the reasons I’ve explained, my final decision is that I do not uphold this complaint. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Mr G and Ms M to accept or reject my decision before 20 April 2026. Sharon Kerrison Ombudsman

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