HSBC gets warning for open banking failures

On more than 50 occasions, the bank published incorrect information related to fees, charges and rates, as well as to eligibility criteria and features and benefits of accounts and loans.

This was in breach of an order that requires the UK’s big banks to ensure accurate, comprehensive and up to date read-only product and reference information is continuously available through Open Banking APIs.

The longest breach lasted from 2017 until 2022.

The CMA says that such failures “may result in consumers taking decisions that they would not have taken if they had access to the correct information”.

The watchdog also says the breaches are “especially disappointing” because this is not the first time that HSBC has made them.

HSBC reported the breaches itself and has moved to fix the issues and prevent a recurrence, including by boosting control processes to check information before it is made available through Open Banking.

Therefore, the CMA is not taking further formal enforcement action and will instead “monitor HBC’s future compliance closely”.