HSBC closes bank accounts of 40 diplomatic missions

HSBC has told dozens of foreign missions in London that it will close their bank accounts, an official said yesterday. The news has sent diplomats across the capital scrambling to find a new place to put their money.

Bernard Silver, an ex-honorary consul who serves as president of the Consular Corps of London, said he'd been told by British officials that more than 40 different embassies, consulates, and high commissions had been affected.

"The majority of missions are finding it very difficult for other banks to accept them," he said.

Silver declined to name any specific missions, but the Mail on Sunday newspaper said that the Papal Nunciature - the Vatican's mission to London - was affected, as was the Papua New Guinea High Commission and the honorary consul from Benin.

The newspaper cited an official at Papua New Guinea's high commission as expressing shock at the move.

"We've been banking with HSBC for 22 years," John Belavu was quoted as saying. "For them to throw us off in this way was a bombshell."