HSBC Australia picked up some unhelpful publicity this week undermining its marketing proposition as the bank for global citizens and travellers.Wagga Wagga resident Robert Lewis is seeking $5,000 compensation from HSBC after he was forced to travel to Sydney and then to Hong Kong to regain access to his account after a bank security upgrade and a problem verifying his signature.A report in the South China Morning Post about Mr Lewis' experience has been picked up in Australia by mainstream media outlets. The article collected more than 800 shares on Facebook and about sixty, mostly vitriolic, comments. Yesterday, another Australian HSBC customer contacted Banking Day to report a similar problem with their HSBC account which was opened in Mumbai.The HSBC spokesperson said that, for privacy reasons, customers of HSBC's local subsidiary banks are unable to access their accounts from other HSBC entities."HSBC helps facilitate introductions for these customers and connects them to the appropriate international branch or International Banking Centre for further support," said the spokesperson."HSBC Premier is our international retail banking and wealth management proposition for affluent customers."With Premier, customers have automatic Premier status anywhere globally meaning they have a dedicated relationship manager, access to all global HSBC accounts online with a single log-on as well as instant, fee-free international fund transfers."In this instance, though, the enforced travel was undertaken by people who were not HSBC Premier customers, showing that banking with a global major is not always as "seamless" as it appears.HSBC is targeting the growing Chinese expat community in Australia and has recently opened a large new branch in Ashfield NSW where ten per cent of the population speaks Mandarin.