Domestic and family violence

If there is an immediate threat to your safety, please call the police on 000.

Domestic and family violence can be:

• physical violence
• sexual violence
• psychological abuse, or controlling or coercive behaviour
• emotional or verbal abuse
• financial abuse (for example, limiting access to money or impacting your overall financial wellbeing), and
• abuse of older people

We are also aware that in these challenging times, with a pandemic and natural disasters, occurrences of domestic and family violence can increase.

Domestic and family violence can happen to anyone. It has devastating consequences for individuals, families, and communities.

It can also have a major impact on your financial security and wellbeing. You may need help protecting your financial independence and in managing your finances safely as you rebuild a secure long-term future.

Our team is here to assist you if you are experiencing domestic and family violence.

Our customers’ safety is important to us. HSBC will not tolerate our products, accounts and online banking services being used in a way that harms others or to perpetuate financial abuse. It's important to remember that silent abuse can occur in examples such as:

• someone restricting another person’s access to funds they are otherwise entitled to access, which in turn limits their independence or ability to escape an abusive situation
• forcing someone to take out a credit product which they won’t get any benefit for
• using money transfers to commit financial abuse such as making very small payments in order to deliver abusive, intimidating or coercive comments to a victim through the description or other text fields

If you feel that someone has used our products in this way, including if you have received a payment or payments with messages that you find abusive, threatening, intimidating or offensive in nature, even if the payment(s) were not from a customer of HSBC, please report this to us by emailing the Extra Care team at Ca.extra.care.team@hsbc.com.au or call +61 2 9762 9331. We can discuss the actions we can take to help you.

If you are experiencing domestic or family violence, our Extra Care team can speak to you about how we can support you and your banking needs.

You can contact our Extra Care team on +612 9762 9060 9am-5:30pm AEST Monday to Friday or email us at ca.extra.care.team@hsbc.com.au.

Your conversations with us are confidential. If you are worried about this, please talk to the Extra Care team about how we can keep your conversations and information you share with us confidential.

Our Extra Care team will work with you to understand how we can help you to safely manage your banking needs during difficult times.

The team can speak to you about taking actions that could include: 

• setting up a new transaction account for you
• changing your passwords and PINs
• changing your address
• looking at the way any of your joint accounts work, for example who can authorise a change or a withdrawal

If you have lending products and are experiencing financial hardship as a result of your situation, the Extra Care team may refer you to our Hardship team who can provide additional support.

The Extra Care team may also refer you to other community support services, if appropriate.

In these challenging times, with pandemics and natural disasters, occurrences of domestic and family violence can increase. To help you through these uncertain times, we will make sure you have the support you need

If you are in immediate danger, please call the police on 000.

To access 24/7 confidential information, counselling and support, we recommend you call 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or visit www.1800respect.org.au.

If you need an interpreter or translator, 1800RESPECT will arrange one for you. Alternatively, you can call the telephone Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) on 131 450, let them know your preferred language, and ask them to contact 1800RESPECT on your behalf on 1800 737 732. TIS National is a free service.

We are committed to helping you through difficult times, including if you are impacted by domestic and family violence.

We understand that it takes a lot for someone to tell us about their situation, and every case is unique. 

We want you to know that we are here to support you through this difficult experience. Our Extra Care team will treat any information that you share with us confidentially.