On BBC Radio Four Money Box on 5 June it was confirmed that HSBC will be repaying £223m as a consequence of Nicholas Wilson's campaign.

Nicholas Wilson (Mr Ethical) first told HSBC subsidiary HFC Bank in 2003 that charges they were adding to debts were illegal. They ignored him. He has campaigned ever since.

• 2006 - NW reported his employers Weightmans, to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. They sacked him and referred to him as 'Mr Ethical'.
• 2007 the SRA confirmed the charges were illegal, but did nothing
• 2010 the Office of Fair Trading told the bank to stop adding the charges.
• 2012 NW reported the fraud to the Financial Services Authority. They did nothing.
• 2016 Financial Conduct Authority apologised to NW for their failures.
• 2017 HSBC agreed that they would repay 6,700 people (£8m). NW gave the FCA further evidence.
• 2019 HSBC agreed to repay a further 18,500 people (£22.2m).
• 2019 the former CEO of HFC Bank took his own life, believing he would go to prison.
• In 2021 it was discovered HSBC carried on adding the charges (after 2010), and were repaying thousands more customers. Nobody is aware of NW's work and he estimates 5-600,000 people are affected. 

In all this time Nicholas Wilson has not been able to find work, being a whistleblower. He is now 64, on benefits, in poor health and unable to pay his mortgage and living expenses without support. He is also a mortgage prisoner. The media has only rarely reported his campaign.

HSBC should pay Nicholas compensation, to give him security for his final days.