A number of brokers have approached Mortgage Strategy with complaints that HSBC’s online systems have prevented the submission and management of cases across the last 24 hours.
Describing the evening before today, 4 August, as “chaotic”, one broker said they couldn’t reach any business development managers (BDMs), “and the standard one hour to answer a phone was considered a good result, when calling a lender.”
Another broker shared a similar story, although they were able to get hold of their BDM – with a positive outcome. This broker says they, “spent from 2pm yesterday trying to key a house purchase [and] a product transfer.
“Eventually,” the broker continues, “after the system crashing I got the house purchase on the system but [regarding] the product transfer, I tried for four hours until I went to bed with not luck.”
This broker says they kept in contact with their BDM throughout the evening, sharing screenshots, with the upshot being a promise to honour the rates detailed.
“The systems are still down today but I think if advisers can evidence they were trying to place the case last night then they should perhaps speak to their BDM,” the broker concludes.
“It’s really bad – the systems can’t cope,” says another broker. “There are queues again today because some BDMs have said they will honour rates.”
The HSBC system is also failing to work on some browsers, the broker says.
The broker adds they are kicked out of the application on the last page.
“It also won’t let you upload documents for existing cases submitted before this all started. So those clients are being affected by delays.”
There has been no industry-wide update, they add.
Complaints about the time taken to key applications from brokers range from it being three hours to seven hours.
The issue has been discussed on Twitter this afternoon. Coreco managing diector Andrew Montlake writes: “I know they are working on the issue and have been really good trying to sort out – it is incredibly frustrating but they are trying and am sure will update everyone.”
A HSBC UK spokesperson says: “We have had a slight technical issue with our broker platform for a very short period which we are testing to assure ourselves this has now been resolved.
“The platform is generally extremely stable and provides a fast and simple broker experience, however from time to time we may need to investigate any rare technical issues as they arise.
“As we pride ourselves on our service experience we’re naturally committed to helping any brokers who haven’t been able to secure the product they were looking for as a result of this particular issue.”