In his article on HSBC and conveyancing, Jonathan Smithers rightly says that solicitors may take steps to steer clients away from HSBC.

He may be too young to remember the days when Abbey National had an even more limited panel of solicitors and repeatedly refused to expand it. The result (in a booming property market) was that solicitors invariably advised clients not to go to Abbey for a mortgage and took such steps as were open to them to ensure that funds which were under their control did not get invested with Abbey National.

I for one will now be advising clients to go nowhere near HSBC. Indeed, partly as a result of HSBC’s policy, one substantial property client of mine has already made the decision to move from HSBC to another bank.

Richard C Male, Male & Wagland, Potters Bar