HSBC has launched an initiative to clamp down on the economic abuse of over four million women, including 750,000 trapped in exploitative joint mortgages.  

The high street bank has teamed up with charity Surviving Economic Abuse to combat this abuse, which they say “involves a current or ex-partner controlling a victim-survivor’s money and the things that it can buy with long-lasting and damaging effects”. 

This affects 4.1 million women in the UK, including three-quarters of a million enmeshed in joint mortgages, which can “plunge many victim-survivors into debt and homelessness by [their former partners] refusing to pay their agreed share of the mortgage, agree to new terms, or sell up”. 

The charity will train HSBC and first direct staff, to spot the signs of economic abuse and support customers.  

It will also work with the bank’s mortgage teams to identify opportunities and test new approaches to improve support for customers experiencing joint mortgage economic abuse. 

The lender will also work with another charity, Money Advice Plus, to adapt an economic abuse evidence form to support customers experiencing economic abuse via secured loans such as joint mortgages. 

HSBC UK head of wealth and personal banking José Carvalho says: “Shared finances provide stability and security for many couples and work perfectly, but where economic abuse is present they can become a tool of control and financial harm.  

“All providers in the finance industry and beyond have a role in tackling this issue and we are proud to partner with Surviving Economic Abuse to strengthen protections for those affected.” 

Surviving Economic Abuse interim chief executive Sam Smethers adds: “No one should be plunged into homelessness because they have experienced domestic abuse.  

“Yet every day abusers are weaponising joint mortgages to devastate the lives of hundreds of thousands of victim-survivors. Many end up trapped with the abuser or facing homelessness and destitution.”