And finally…Taff luck - HSBC customer told Welsh letter is in a “foreign language”

Poet and songwriter Geraint Lovgreen complained to the Welsh Language Commissioner after HSBC replied to his correspondence by telling him they could not deal with the content of his letter because they couldn’t understand it.

The bank said the note, informing them of it Mr Lovgreen’s change of address, was “in a foreign language” and instructed him to “resend your message in English”.

HSBC has since apologised and said it would offer better training to staff.

Mr Lovgreen said: “It is shameful that Welsh is deemed a foreign language and it reflects badly on the training given to staff”.

Welsh Language Commissioner Meri Huws said while there were no legal duties on banks to provide services in Welsh, her review in 2015 recommended senior managers of banks in Wales to encourage use of the language.

“These discussions have led to a number of positive steps by some banks to increase their use of Welsh,” she added. “Others have a long way to go.

“It is disappointing we continue to see examples where there seems to be a lack of Welsh language provision or understanding about the needs of Welsh speaking customers.”

According to the 2001 Census, 20.8 per cent of the Welsh population aged 3+ were able to speak Welsh - around 562,000 people.

HSBC, which describes itself as “the world’s local bank” and has branches throughout Wales, said it had worked hard to provide Welsh language services for its customers and it also worked “closely” with the Welsh Language Commissioner.

A spokesman said: “Unfortunately, in this instance the message from the customer was not picked as up as being written in Welsh and as a result was not dealt with by our Welsh speaking team, for which we apologise.”