I would like to bring to the attention of all your readers some rather strange things that are going on at HSBC banks. Whilst looking at my account details the other day, I was surprised to see an entry in the debit column that read 'Powervantage Chge' in the amount of RM15. Upon further investigation, I found that this charge was started, with my current account, about three months ago.

I was never informed by the bank that this charge would be levied and certainly it has not been levied on my current account ever before. I have investigated this matter and found that the bank 'just decided' a few months ago to charge me a monthly account fee of RM15. This despite the fact that my account has never been in debit for the entire time (nearly 15 years) that I have held an account with HSBC. Furthermore, I have substantial fixed deposits with HSBC and also with First Direct Bank in England, which is owned by HSBC.

I have informed the HSBC bank in Kuching that unless they immediately remedy this situation and re-imburse the funds to my account, I will close all my accounts with both them and with First Direct in England.

Needless to say, this caused some considerable ripples at the bank and some pretty desperate explanations, one of which was that the RM15 charge was for services such as sending me SMSes! I did not ask for such services and I doubt if anybody else has either, so what is going on here?

Furthermore, it is totally illegal for a bank to ever remove money from a client's account without seeking prior approval from the customer concerned.

This is yet another case of a huge multi-national company behaving rather more like the school bully than a publicly accountable entity.