Hi I'm Ed Clarke. Thanks for giving me this facility.

My compliant is simple one of a betrayal by hsbc ('THE WORLDS LOCAL BANK') by the way of hsbc stopping all funding to a project they had agreed to fund over a period of years. By stopping the funding midway through the project, hsbc caused the successful part of the business to fail (2007). As hsbc also stopped all direct debit to suppliers court proceedings were brought by the suppliers, resulting in my bankruptcy ( although this was annulled serious damage was done to my credit record). More important on closing the venue (arcbar) 5 full time staff and 10 part time workers lost there jobs.
With no further support from hsbc the building works on the rest of the project stopped further loss of work for the builders.
Since the start of the loan up to when hsbc stopped their finance all payments on the loan had been made. The works carried out on the building had increased the value of the building from £150.000 to £650, 000 ( their value).


The initial loan was secured at the time (2000) by a basket of property valued at around £1.5 million. the loan was about £200.000. The type of loan was called THE HSBC BANK PLC MORTGAGE DEED CONDITIONS(1999 edition) no further mortgage payments were made from early 2007.
Hsbc demanded that i repay all monies within 2 weeks. I requested that they release some of the assets they were holding so i could find alternative financing. I also asked hsbc to restructure the loan and reinstate my account, on refusing they restated they wanted all outstanding monies to be repaid. I informed hsbc as it was totally their fault that things had turned out this way that they should act responsible and resolve the matters and not surcharge or threaten me with further action.
The dept was standing at around £340, 000 at this time. i made it clear i would be resposible for all outstanding interest at 1% above base. and that i would start repayments as soon as possible, but at a lessor rate as the business was no longer providing any income, further as they had many times the value of the dept in assets they would always be guaranteed their money.
Finally the matter was taken over by the special situation manager of hsbc. In september 2009 i wrote to the SS manager stating that i would be in a position to start paying the dept at the original loan rate of £4500 per month and that i could pay around £50, 000 to reduce the outstanding interest.

The SS manager replied that he would put it to his credit people in London in september 2009 he wrote that the credit team had refused my offer and i would have to pay the whole sum now standing at £450, 000 within 14 days. I wrote asking he reconsider my offer, and reminded him that as Hsbc had caused the problem in the beginning, and further that i disagreed with the amount of extra money they had put on the deptand that i would consider suing hsbc for breach of promise and causing the downfall of my business, there was no reply to my letter.

One of the flat held on security was near the Portobello rd in Notting hill gate, i had just let on a 2 year contract at a yearly rental of £25, 000 (this was intended to go towards loan repayment)
Out of the blue on the 23 october a call on my mobile saying that he had being appointed receiver and to of my properties had been taken by him by order of Hsbc and that i had no longer any interested, i told him that was outragous that some one out of the blue should just phone up and tell me that stuff. he asked my address so he called send the neccessary paperwork. My tenant told me that they had asked her to leave as she was a illegal tenant.
My tenant was distraught as she had found it harder to find accommodation being a single parent family, i wrote to the SS manager of Hsbc asking that his agents do not to harass the tenant as the tenant is legal, and further to stop all further receivership activities until i looked at the situation properly, also a moblie phone call does not constute service and that i beleive their legal process is flawed and not enforcable.
I also informed him that i had received no documentation from any source including solicitors acting for Hsbc, he replied he would immediately ask them to contact me, but i have not had any information to date from either their solicitors or the compliants dept of Hsbc.
My tenant told me that although she loved the flat the pressure from the agents of Hsbc was such that she had to leave. I have now taken occupation of the flat ( the flat was my former home )
I have emailed Hsbc warning not to attempt to gain entrance to my flat, as forced entry is regarded as a criminal offence in UK law. Hope its the same for you in the USofA.

Anyway i have told Hsbc that i intend to make my situation known to as many people as possible. as in the USA the UK the small business and homeowners have been made the scapegoat of careless world bankers like Hsbc. In the UK 67% of employment( so i'm informed) is created by small businesses yet 60% have been refused loans from the banks, forcing a lot of businesses to use credit cards to survive, the same apply s to homeowners so the banks have not only let us down but some are even exploting us with high credit charges, and the biggest insult is they are paying themselves bonus at the same time as squeesing us when they caused the problem in the first place.

I have worked to hard to turn the other cheek, so lets all talk of solutions
small savers are being ripped off their money gets little returns, so let the goverments form local banks that could take and protect those saving and the loan the money to small business and home owners at a sustainable rate, look around how many big businesses how just left for whatever reasons some even exploiting cheaper labour in poorer countries countries, no question of any consideration for the problem of the broken neighberhoods they leave behind ''IT'S JUST BUSINESS AS USUAL''

regards and thanks for listening Ed Clarke