Customers will be protected – Finance Minister

Republic Bank Visa scam

…awaits report from Central Bank Governor

In light of the recent Republic Bank Visa scam, Finance Minister Winston Jordan has assured customers of that financial institution that they would be protected as he awaits a detailed report from Bank of Guyana on the issue, which has left several account holders with missing funds.
“All customers are protected under the banking laws…we have to do an investigation, and it has to be proven that their monies have been taken out of the account other than by them, and then the bank will have to make the necessary adjustments to their accounts,” Minister Jordan recently told Guyana Times.
Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited has confirmed that some customers were affected by fraudulent activity via their international Visa-One ATM cards. The Trinidad-owned financial institution has also noted that additional security measures will be put in place to protect its clients. This publication understands that affected customers are, however, facing many challenges to recoup their lost funds.
The bank is said to be carrying out stringent investigations to verify whether the missing money was spent by the account holder or by unauthorised individual(s).
“I don’t know whether it is a problem with their computer or something else. I can’t speculate, but I am going to wait on a report from the Governor (Dr Gobind Ganga),” the Finance Minister has said.
Dr Ganga was quoted in other sections of the media as saying that Republic Bank would have to refund its customers if the investigations reveal that the customers were not at fault.
The financial institution had explained that it is taking the necessary steps to regularise all affected accounts using a well-defined, standard process that focuses on reducing customer inconvenience.
According to the RBL, it has been able to quickly identify cases where customers’ cards were compromised, and was able to effectively minimise the risk to other customers.
Republic Bank also reminded customers of the need to be vigilant when using their debit cards, and to monitor their account’s activities.
One affected customer related to this newspaper that he had visited the Republic Bank Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara to do a transaction, but received a notice saying there were insufficient funds to honour the requested amount. He said this prompted him to conduct a balance inquiry, and to his astonishment, his account had only $9000. The customer said he was left speechless, since he was aware that his account had over $140,000.
He then went to the Bank and made a report, and was given a dispute form to fill out. He said he was advised by the teller that the investigation process for such a claim takes between 60 and 90 days.
The customer expressed dissatisfaction with the response by the Bank, adding that when he enquired about reimbursement, he was not given positive feedback.
Meanwhile, another customer said he also was left shocked when he realised that $2 million was missing from his account. He said an inquiry revealed that that money was deducted from his account to pay for several online purchases.
Another customer said she went to the ATM and found that $60,000 was missing from her account. She said she also was given a dispute form to fill out when she visited the Bank. The young lady slammed the financial institution for not being honest with its customers about the hacking incident.
Republic Bank currently holds 35.4 per cent of the banking systems’ assets, and 36.8 per cent of deposits in Guyana.
It is poised to own more than 50 per cent of the market share if it takes over the operations of the Canada-based Scotiabank, which has already announced its intention to pull out from Guyana.