HSBC is today announcing that it will take responsibility for all NHFA customers - including those from before HSBC bought the company in 2005 - to ensure that customers are put at ease regarding possible poor investment advice they may have been given by NHFA advisers.
HSBC has already begun the process of writing to all NHFA customers from April 2004 to date. These customers should receive letters during the coming weeks advising them of the closure of the company.
In addition, the letters will inform customers whether they have been identified as being part of the 2,485 individuals who may have been mis-sold investment bonds.
In all cases where inappropriate advice has been given by NHFA, HSBC will ensure that no-one is financially disadvantaged.
Commenting, Brian Robertson, chief executive of HSBC Bank plc, said: "We will take responsibility for all NHFA customers - including those from before HSBC bought the company in 2005 - to ensure that this issue is entirely resolved.
“I am profoundly sorry about what happened at NHFA and it is only right and proper that we stand fully behind these customers.
"Many customers will be rightly concerned that they, or indeed their relatives, might not have received appropriate advice from NHFA, so we will certainly look at each complaint individually and sympathetically."
Customers of NHFA from April 2004 do not need to do anything. They will be contacted during the coming weeks to explain what will happen next.
Any customers of NHFA from before April 2004 who wish to complain should email NHFA@hsbc.com giving as much detail as possible about the customer in question.
