If anyone is still interested, I found a solution to that HSBC Global Transfers prob.
After much digging on the HSBC UK website (and wasted time chatting online with a rep) I found that there are two alternative types of foreign currency accounts - the Primary account allows subsets of foreign currencies called 'Global Money', but foreign currency can't be transferred directly into them, it gets sent to the main GBP account first and auto converted. A complete nuisance.
The solution is to dig around and find out how to set up a 'HSBC Currency Account' where you can nominate favourite currencies, obtain a specific account number, and then transfer directly into it without any auto conversions.
I don't see the point of these different 'products' really, and even their own reps don't seem very au fait with them. Perhaps you can only set up the 'HSBC Currency Account' if you are a Premier customer, which you need to be to use their 'Global Banking' system.
Good luck.