THE Scottish chairman of HSBC has warned that banks are at risk of "excluding" less well-off customers as it becomes too expensive for the industry to offer advice to many individuals.

Douglas Flint said less wealthy customers could lose access to simple financial services if lenders are overburdened by unnecessary regulation.

He told a finance conference in London: "The worry is that the industry is moving towards serving high net-worth individuals rather than those at the bottom of society.

"It becomes more and more difficult to sell simple products to the lower income part of society and I think it would be retrograde if we end up effectively making the system safer by excluding the people that we brought into the system."

Anthony Browne, chief executive of the British Bankers Association, speaking at the same event, agreed, warning that new upfront charges and costs for simple banking products could turn some low-paid people away from the system.

New rules meant to ensure advisers are better trained, introduced by Britain's financial regulator in January, have made it too expensive to offer advice to many customers, according to many banks.

Several banks, including HSBC, have responded by withdrawing advice to customers with less than £50,000 to invest.