Here’s a salutary tale from an overseas student at Cambridge. He received a letter from his bank (the HSBC Group) telling him that they no longer wished to provide him with banking services, and that he had 30 days to move to another bank before his HSBC account would be closed by them.
After unsuccessfully trying a number of times to ring the contact number on the letter (his local HSBC branch could do nothing), let him take up the story:
After two written complaints and a phone call to customer services, a member of the “Team” finally contacted me. She enquired about a single international deposit into my account, which I then explained to be my study grant for the coming year. Upon this explanation I was told that the bank would not close my account, and I was given a vague explanation of them not expecting students to get large deposits. I found this strange, since it had not been a problem in previous years, and even stranger since my deposit had cleared into my account two days after the letter was sent.
I love that: the bank "doesn’t expect students to get large deposits". Dear lord, when I was at university forty years ago, I got my student grant paid to me in a single large deposit each year, hasn’t the penny dropped yet at the HSBC that this is what happens?
I note that this student isn’t the only one to receive a similar letter from the HSBC. Clearly, some newly-introduced fraud or anti-terrorist checking system has been throwing up false positives. It all leaves a nasty taste, particularly after reading the similar experiences of others who have commented on the student’s Blog entry. Cockney rhyming slang doesn’t even begin to describe this bunch of bankers.
(hat tip to Bruce Schneier for the link)
Geoff Coupe's Blog 
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