Why is HSBC hounding me?

I am 83 years old and have been a customer of HSBC and previously the Midland Bank for more than 60 years without ever going overdrawn, except when the bank started taking our mortgage weekly instead of monthly.

However, in the past year I have had two demands for certified copies of documents to prove that I exist. I do not have a current driving licence or passport, which it suggests are the best proof, and many of the other documents it proposes have to be dated within the past four months. My tax and benefit notifications are issued in April, and my credit card statements are not acceptable because they are from M& S Bank, which is operated by HSBC.

My joint account with

my husband always has a healthy balance, and we have lived at our present address for more than 20 years and our previous one for more than 30 years. Now, HSBC is pretending that it doesn’t know me.

Perhaps you could persuade HSBC to stop chasing long-term customers for such information, and concentrate on stopping crooks from opening up scam accounts. JC, CHESHIRE

After I contacted the bank, it phoned you to say it sympathised with your problems and would be helping to sort them out.

After that, you received yet another letter demanding documents and threatening to restrict your account. The letter claimed you had failed to contact the bank – even though you had written to it twice