France, however, kept copies of the data on the HSBC account holders and returned other copies to HSBC on Mar. 3, according to the bank.

FORBES

There had been rumblings of this back in December, when HSBC claimed that only 10 account holders had been affected by the theft.

FORBES: Tax Avoidance

The yield on HSBC's Premier Savings online account has fallen to 0.3% from 0.8% last summer.

WSJ: Finding High Rates Online

Murat Ulgen, chief economist at HSBC in Istanbul, says the current-account deficit is expected to be 8% of GDP in the 12 months to March.

ECONOMIST: The Turkish economy

Appeal collection points have been set up and a bank account opened at the Llanelli branch of HSBC.

BBC: The roof of the house was destroyed in the fire

HSBC, concludes that home prices look overvalued in 20 states that account for over half of America's population.

ECONOMIST: Global house prices

However, regular current account holders at the banking group, as well as HSBC customers, receive paper statements every month.

BBC: RBS and NatWest cut back on paper account statements

"HSBC, NatWest and RBS will only offer new credit cards or unsecured loans to their current account customers, " he said.

BBC: Credit card bad debt write-offs double

They would sometimes deposit hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, in a single day, into a single account, using boxes designed to fit the precise dimensions of the teller windows in HSBC Mexico's branches.

BBC: Are some banks too big to jail?

Last year French authorities said they had obtained a list of 3, 000 French clients with HSBC Private Bank, using sources that included the employee who is allegedly responsible for the 24, 000-account theft, Herve Falciani.

FORBES