HSBC accused of contempt for Welsh speakers

HSBC has been accused of holding contempt towards its customers as it prepares to close its Welsh language phone service.

Politicians on the Welsh Parliament's culture and Welsh language committee have called for the planned closure in January to be cancelled.

The high-street bank's commitments to Welsh were "redundant" if it refuses, the committee said in a letter.

HSBC said it was "committed" to supporting Welsh language customers.

Citing the bank's own website which says it is "dedicated" to the culture of Wales, the letter said HSBC's "failure to maintain an approach consistent with its values is considered disingenuous and disturbing".

It questions some of the statements made by José Carvalho, HSBC's head of wealth and personal banking, who addressed the committee last month.

He said there were three Welsh-speaking agents available to help customers, who receive around 22 calls a day, and that the bank had ended up "with only 6% of the calls that are coming in being answered in Welsh by these three agents".

The committee said this means 94% of calls to the service are not being answered in Welsh, despite speakers requesting to use the service.

"We would posit that HSBC's claim in its letter of 8 November 2023 that the service is '…no longer being fully utilised' is not in fact the case," the committee said.

"Rather, the low number of calls to which HSBC refers reflects your bank's inability to provide a functioning and coherent service that meets the needs of its Welsh speaking customers.

"We believe that this shows a level of contempt towards HSBC's customers, and that the bank's language and rationale surrounding the decision to close the service has been disingenuous."

The committee said the effect of HSBC's actions has been to push Welsh speakers out by stealth, and said there is considerable strength of feeling from across the parties in the Senedd against the decision to close the phone line.

The bank's plans to offer a three day call back to Welsh speaking customers would be no good, the committee said, to a person who might have an urgent matter to deal with such as paying an energy bill.

Politicians called for assurances that Welsh-speaking customers would get a call-back within one business day.

The bank's lack of a Welsh language banking app was also criticised.

While HSBC told the committee it was not as simple as translating the app, the committee pointed out that the app was available in different languages in other parts of the world.

Senedd members said they were not convinced by the reasons given by the company, adding: "It would seem that HSBC has chosen not to make this investment in Welsh".

They want the bank to reverse its decision to close the Welsh language helpline, and said: "A failure to do so would in effect mean that HSBC's commitments to Wales and the Welsh language are redundant."

HSBC said call numbers to its Welsh line were "extremely low", averaging at less than 24 a day.

A spokesman added: "If a customer does want to speak with a Welsh speaker, that still can be arranged.

"We will also continue to have Welsh speaking colleagues in half our Welsh branches and will continue to respond to customer correspondence in Welsh."