After the scandal of Swiss Leaks, HSBC (Malta) seems to have gone overboard. Talk about closing the stable door. I transferred a substantial sum of money from a local bank to my current account at HSBC with the purpose of settling a loan account. After HSBC accepted the money into my current account, no questions asked, to my bewilderment they would not allow me to make a transfer from my current account to my loan account. They insisted that I had to prove where this money had come from.

Surely, if the money had come from a local bank there should not have been any problem. I have been a client of this bank for over 40 years and, needless to say, I am very happy to have transferred my accounts elsewhere. Small wonder that HSBC are losing clients in Malta.