Residents of Antigua and Barbuda who have long been complaining about the poor
quality of service offered by commercial banks now have a powerful advocate
helping to make their case.
That’s because the Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, Timothy
Antoine, has concluded that he too is unhappy with the level of service offered by
banks in the country and it’s a point he raised when he met the Antigua and
Barbuda Bankers’ Association last Friday during his Country Mission to Antigua
and Barbuda.
The meeting with the banking officials came after the Governor and his team had
spent several days in the country meeting with a large cross section of people to
hear their concerns. He said issues related to bank services and fees dominated
much of the discussion.
“We did hear, and we raised with our banks, concerns from the community about
customer service by our banks. The banks said they are aware of these concerns
and are working to resolve them as soon as possible. These include the updating of
their systems, in some cases there is a little bit of a queue to get some of their
providers to come and update the systems but are working to do that and
eventually they expect some of the service offerings to improve,” Antoine
explained.
He added that the banks have also recognized that there needs to be more
engagement and public education around the use of digital channels to minimize
long queues in the banking halls. Other things discussed include the Office of
Financial Conduct which the ECCB is working to set up as a basis to receive,
address and process complaints and concerns by customers with their financial
institutions.
But it was the issue of establishing an account at the bank that the Governor found
particularly exasperating.
“It is so difficult to open a bank account and this came up this week during our
discussions. I am pleased to announce that we have invited recommendations from
the banks about how this can be solved. We (ECCB) requested and the banks
submitted and we are now reviewing. Addressing this problem may involve
changes to the law but it is something that we will address. We make it far easier,
we should make it almost as an economic right to open at least one account,” he
declared.
He however, not that under the current law the banks do reserve the right to open
or close an account if it is not operated properly. He expressed support for the
banks if their facilities are being used for criminal behaviour such as money
laundering.
Despite this, he remained firm that it was too difficult for honest people to open a
banking account here in Antigua and Barbuda. “That’s where we have to draw the
line.” He stated.
