A customer for 55 years ...and HSBC wants bills

M.B. writes: I am 75 years of age and I own a small firm that turns over about £100,000 a year. I have been a business customer of HSBC for over 20 years and a personal customer for 55 years. Now, I have received a very long-winded and intrusive form from the bank, along with letters, texts and screen messages, demanding utility bills for my business address. However, this is just a postal address, as I actually work from home. LIKE lots of small ventures, you use a business centre. For a flat fee of £35 a month, the centre accepts your mail and parcels, and provides office space for business meetings. Everything is included in the flat fee, and you are not separately billed for gas, electricity or water.

You told me that you have explained this three times to HSBC and been told that this is acceptable, only to have the requests for utility bills arrive all over again. You suspect the bank simply wants to ditch small accounts.

HSBC denies this. It is carrying out a long-term ‘Know Your Customer’ scheme, checking the accounts of all its business customers to weed out any possible financial crime such as money laundering. However, your own experience shows that a ‘one-sizefits-all’ operation, with kitchen table businesses treated in the same way as multi-national corporations, has its drawbacks for both customer and bank.

A spokesman told me: ‘We are sorry for the inconvenience that Mr B has experienced.’ HSBC has confirmed that its review is complete, and it is happy to keep you and your business as customers.