I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at HSBC (Londres, Angleterre) in Oct 2011
Interview
Graduate Scheme - Trading Analyst - Global Markets - London
Applied online and received the invitation to undertake the online assessment within a few hours and then was asked to book a telephone interview within a day, so I guess HSBC is quite productive in processing applications.
The interview went well, it was mainly financial and motivational based. Nothing from text book was asked so make sure you know the news, not just current news but also be able to tell a story about the trends of the last few weeks, months or years.
Motivational based questions are the same as other competency questions. Why HSBC ? Why Global Markets - Trading ? Strengths ? Weaknesses ? Skills etc. Also make sure you can tell a story about those.
I received an email saying that I passed the interview a day later and I am still waiting for the invitation for the assessment centre.
Hope that helps,