Irecently received a letter from my bank asking me to submit certain documents, apparently required by “know your customer” (KYC) regulations. I was a little surprised to receive this letter, for just a few months earlier, I had already submitted these documents in response to a different request from the bank.

The latest letter threatened “dire consequences” (e.g., “We will close your account without any further notice to you if you fail to comply with this requirement.”) To be on the safe side, I phoned the bank to ask them why they sent me this letter when I had already complied with the requirements. The conversation went like this:

Bank manager (after checking my records): “We’re sorry for the inconvenience, sir, but not to worry, you have already completed the requirements. You can ignore the letter. It was just a reminder that we sent to all customers. If you notice, there is a line at the bottom that says ‘Please ignore if documents already submitted.’”

I looked at the letter. Sure enough, there was this line in small print at the bottom.

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