HSBC China statements: how to download them and turn them into clean data

HSBC China (汇丰银行（中国）) sends one integrated monthly statement covering all your accounts: an RMB settlement account, a multi-currency savings account for remittance funds (现汇) and one for cash funds (现钞). Each foreign currency has its own balance, and remittance and cash balances are kept apart. Each account has its own section in the PDF.

What HSBC China provides, and what Selfirm reads

File	Format	In Selfirm
Integrated monthly statement, RMB settlement account section	PDF	Read
Integrated monthly statement, multi-currency savings sections (现汇, 现钞)	PDF	Set aside for now

The foreign currency sections are not read yet because their headings do not say which currency they are in. Support for them is planned.

How to download the statement

We have not confirmed the current steps against an official HSBC China help page, so the following is general.

HSBC China delivers e-statements in two ways: through its online banking e-statement service, and by email. Its terms for emailed e-statements (个人客户电邮电子结单服务条款) state that the emailed statements are password protected. If you receive them by email, save the attachment. If you use online banking, log in and look for the e-statement section, then download the month you need.

What the file looks like

It is password protected. Without the password the PDF cannot be opened, so a converter fails before it starts.

One section per account. Each section heading names the account (for example 人民币结算账户-I) and its account number. The rows below have no account of their own.

Foreign currency sections do not name their currency. The headings of 多种外币现汇储蓄户 and 多种外币现钞储蓄户 do not say which currency a section is in. A converter has no way to tell from the section which currency its amounts are in.

The columns are 日期 (date), 交易明细 (description), 存入 (money in), 支出 (money out) and 结余 (balance).

Dates are day/month/year: 05/03/2026 is 5 March 2026. Read as month/day, it becomes 3 May.

A date is printed once per day. Later rows on the same day leave the date blank.

Totals at the end of each section. Each section ends with 交易总额 (total amount) and 交易次数 (number of transactions) rows, sometimes run together on one line. They are not transactions.

Money in and money out are separate unsigned columns. The signed amount is money in minus money out.

Example

Fictional data, the RMB settlement account section:

Section heading: 人民币结算账户-I · (account number)

日期	交易明细	存入	支出	结余
05/03/2026	跨行转入 示例软件有限公司	6,000.00		16,000.00
	快捷支付 示例书店		100.00	15,900.00
18/03/2026	转出至本人他行账户		2,000.00	13,900.00
	交易总额	6,000.00	2,100.00
	交易次数	1	2

Read correctly:

Date	Description	Amount (CNY)	Balance
2026-03-05	跨行转入 示例软件有限公司	6,000.00	16,000.00
2026-03-05	快捷支付 示例书店	-100.00	15,900.00
2026-03-18	转出至本人他行账户	-2,000.00	13,900.00

Bringing it into Selfirm

Selfirm is in early access. You upload the PDF as HSBC sent it, or a folder of statements at once. If the file is password protected, Selfirm asks for the password before reading it. It recognises the statement as an HSBC China integrated statement, reads the RMB settlement account section and leaves out the total rows.

It checks that the balance runs correctly row by row and that each month starts where the previous one ended. Rows repeated across overlapping files are counted once. A transfer out to your own account at another bank is proposed as a transfer when that bank’s statement is also in Selfirm. Each movement is classified as income, expense or transfer for you to confirm, and every figure links back to the page and row of the PDF.

Exporting to CSV or Beancount is planned, not available today. Join the waitlist to try it.

Other mainland China institutions Selfirm reads: Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, Bank of Communications, China Merchants Securities, CICC Wealth Management.