Several high-street banks have revised their terms and conditions to tell people that data may be processed in countries outside the UK, leaving customers to wonder just how safe their personal details are.

Since late 1999, HSBC has used its offices in China and India to process some UK accounts.

Workers at these sites often update customer address details and create new direct debit and standing order instructions.

According to HSBC, customer data is kept completely confidential. "Our staff in India and China are trained to the same standard and are under the same duty of confidentiality as their colleagues in the UK," the bank told Money Box.

"We use the same system controls, management checks and procedures in all our sites to ensure that this duty of confidentiality is not breached. Our actions comply with the rules of the FSA, the Banking Code of Conduct and the Data Protection Act."

But many UK banking customers are still concerned about the transfer of personal data abroad and are unclear as to their data protection rights.

Money Box looked at the issue on Saturday 11 May 2002.

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