Most complained about. Officially.

If you feel HSBC is hard to deal with, the official numbers back you up. In the second half of 2024 HSBC had more complaints opened against it than any other financial firm in the UK.

98,421

complaints opened, July–December 2024. The most of any UK financial firm.

59.95%

of HSBC complaints in that period upheld in the customer’s favour.

176 hrs

of IT disruption logged by HSBC between January 2023 and early 2025.

Most complained-about firm in the UK, H2 2024

The Financial Conduct Authority publishes complaint figures for every firm that receives 500 or more complaints in a six-month period. According to FCA data reported by MoneyWeek, HSBC had 98,421 complaints opened in the second half of 2024, the most of any firm. Of the complaints it closed, 59.95% were upheld, meaning HSBC itself accepted the customer had a valid point. Banking and credit card complaints made up 91,184 of the total, with 59.91% upheld.

The FCA counts all complaints made directly to firms; the Financial Ombudsman Service publishes separate figures for complaints escalated to it. Big banks get more complaints because they have more customers, so a high total does not on its own mean worse service per customer. The upheld rate shows how often the bank itself agreed it got things wrong.

IT failures: 32 incidents, 176 hours

In March 2025 the House of Commons Treasury Committee published data from nine major banks and building societies on IT failures between January 2023 and February 2025. HSBC reported 32 incidents, the joint third-highest number, and 176 hours of disruption, the second-longest after NatWest.

In its letter to the Committee, HSBC said this included one full IT failure lasting 13.5 hours and 31 further incidents that degraded service for a combined 162.5 hours.

Scam reimbursement

The Payment Systems Regulator publishes how much each big bank pays back to victims of authorised push payment (APP) scams. In 2023 HSBC reimbursed 76% of APP scam losses by value, behind TSB (88%) and Nationwide (87%). Since 7 October 2024, UK banks must reimburse most APP scam victims under the PSR’s mandatory reimbursement rules. What this means for you →

In Australia, HSBC admitted in 2026 that it took an average of 144 days to investigate customers’ scam reports. Read the case →

Your experience counts. Statistics tell part of the story. If HSBC ignored your complaint, failed to stop a payment or treated you badly, add your story to the record and escalate it properly.

The evidence

7 sources