HSBC sees 'rapid increase' in customer 'skips'

HSBC in the Middle East has said it has seen a "rapid increase" in the number of absconding customers, or "skips" since the autumn of 2008 and added that there were no signs that the numbers were reducing.

Redundancies have led to large numbers of customers fleeing the region, leaving behind mountains of outstanding debt, bankers say.

HSBC, which has about 300,000 retail banking customers, said that skips account for half the bank’s bad debt, UAE daily The National reported on Wednesday.

“We have experienced a rapid increase in skips since the autumn of 2008 and there are few signs that this is abating,” George Lennox, the head of PFS credit at HSBC Middle East, told the paper in an e-mail statement.

Most had absconded to India, the Philippines, Pakistan or Britain, he said, and typically had worked in “areas of the economy most affected by the current conditions, ie construction, sale of property, etc”.

Major international banks are now reportedly taking a softer approach with customers in a bid to reduce the number of absconders, the paper added.

They have reassigned scores of employees to debt collecting, and have extended grace periods on loan payments, and set up telephone help lines offering financial counselling.

Citibank has also begun redeploying employees to its debt-collection arm and giving them added training in such courses as “soft” negotiating.

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