Bu NewsGram Staff Writer

After being left red-faced over a website blunder which directed unwitting visitors to a pornographic site on its Hong Kong page, banking giant HSBC has issued an apology for the mishap.

According to media reports, the third party website for an obsolete community award had expired and was subsequently taken over by a porn site. It was originally connected with the HSBC site.

The video appearing on the Apple Daily newspaper website showed the website linking to a page that showed suggestive pictures of scantily clad women.

"The link to the external website has been removed from its community projects page HSBC would like to apologise to the public for any inconvenience caused", the banking major said in a statement issued on Monday.

The British bank added that it was not associated with the racy webpage in any way, adding that its website remains secure.

Meanwhile jokes were being circulated on Apple Daily's Facebook page saying that it was a new HSBC business.