I noticed two months ago that money has been disappearing from my account, a few fils at a time. I got alarmed and wanted to see how long this had been going on! Since they never sent me a paper statement of account i contacted them for old statements. When i called them, they said "oh, because you have registered for e-statements".
OK... so i check the e-statements. Suprise! only up to november 2006. the previous 10 months are missing and guess what? they want 1300 dhs for my old statements although they never sent me any in the past!! unbelievable. And even though it is a person's right to have records of their bank statements, they just shrugged and said, "well pay up then". there is one word for that behaviour: Pirates.
Although it is clear as water that money just "goes", they keep denying it and won't provide me with my older statements.
Several other people have similar issues with HSBC so be VERY CAREFUL with your money. Also, if you are doing international transactions, they bill you twice and say nothing about it unless you tell them!