Tipster: HSBC Closes 82 branches of HFC & Beneficial

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Blown Mortgage received a trusted tip this morning that banking giant HSBC closed 82 branches of Household Finance Corporation (HFC) and Beneficial . Both HSBC companies are players in the non-prime markets and specialize in mortgage refinancing and debt consolidation. Beneficial has also done it’s fair share of “personal loans” using a lien on title, which can show up as a 3rd mortgage on title reports.

HSBC has been pulling back by closing branches of HFC and Beneficial over the last several quarters and closed another one of its subprime lenders, Decision One (or D-1 as it was known, or D-Last as it was referred to in my company for their penchant for approving loan files that weren’t approved elsewhere) , back in September of 2007.

HSBC’s ownership in HFC and Beneficial have put it smack in the middle of the US housing meltdown. One top HSBC investor claimed that the company undervalued losses by $30 billion, after announcing first quarter losses of $3.2 billion in mortgage-related writedowns.