HSBC Malta customers have been told they must send a severed finger to the bank if they want to continue using its services.
In a letter sent to everyone with a HSBC account, the bank instructed customers to chop off one of their middle fingers, place it in an envelope and post it to their headquarters in Qormi.
When contacted, HSBC said it was introducing the measure as a way for customers to pledge their loyalty to the bank.
“There are a lot of other banks out there these days, like Revolut, and we just people to show they still love us and think we’re the best bank in Malta,” a spokesman for HSBC Malta said, adding that they got the idea from the Mexican drug cartels who used their parent bank to launder money.
“And don’t try and send us someone else’s finger. We’ll know if you do, and we’ll be very unhappy with you. Having said that, if customers send us their whole hand, we’ll waive the €5 fee,” he added.
Asked what would be done with all the middle fingers, the spokesman said they would be placed upright outside branches across the country, to let the bank’s customers know what it thinks of them.
