I went to withdraw some dollars from IARO's dollar account at lunchtime.

Normally I'm asked for a passport and a credit card as idnetification, so this time I had them ready and handed them over with my cheque. When the cashier saw my credit card she said, "That's Spanish!". I was so taken aback that all I did was explain that I was just giving her some identification!

I produced more credit cards, but fortunately just at that moment the cashier who I usually deal with turned up and was able to vouch for me. So I now have, "Known by Charlie" written on the back of my cheque!

I had had to wait a long time in the queue, and there was a queue behind me, so I didn't get round to asking what exactly was Spanish about them. OK, some of our banks are owned by Santander: OK, the first credit card I produced was a BAA Worldcard (and BAA is owned by Ferrovial, a Spanish company).

But so what? All I was doing was proving my identity: the fact that the card I was using to do so might or might not have Spanish branding on makes it no less good as identification, surely? I did wonder if what was really wanted was a Barclays-issued card, rather than one issued by American Express or MBNA - but that was never actually said. And if that's what they really want, we are going to have relationship problems in future!

But then, I really do expect the foreign exchange counter of an international bank - even one staffed by a lady with a Russian name - to take this kind of thing in their stride. Reasonable?