SINCE 2020 six National Commercial Bank (NCB) customers have sent complaints to the Tell Claudienne column alleging that money was stolen from their accounts via automated bank machines (ABMs). To these complaints the e-mail response from NCB has been more or less as follows:

“We acknowledge your complaint dated…

You have disputed transactions reflected on your account, which were completed at an ABM. After careful examination of the disputed transaction(s) we have concluded that the transaction(s) were done with the use of your genuine card and PIN. Consequently, NCB cannot consider itself liable in this matter and as such, we are not in a position to refund the monies to your account.

For further redress, we recommend that you report the matter to the police with whom NCB will cooperate fully in their investigations, including providing photographs, as soon as they become available.

We sincerely regret that, based on the circumstances of the matter, we are not able to provide further support in recovering your funds.”

However, although NCB has urged aggrieved customers to report theft from their accounts to the police and has promised to cooperate and provide the police with videos showing individuals in the ABM at the time of the theft, that has not necessarily been the reality.

One of the complainants got a timesheet from NCB listing three transactions done on the account in Negril, Westmoreland, on September 30, 2020, at 5:14 pm, 5:15 pm and 5:16 pm. At the time the Negril transactions on the Midas card took place, the said NCB account holder was alleged to be at a fast food location on Constant Spring Road in St Andrew.

“Based on Google maps the fastest route between these 2 locations is 3 hours 41 minutes. It is humanly impossible for someone to use my card at 5:16 pm in Negril, Westmoreland and take 14 minutes to return the card in Kingston,” the complainant said.

After the complainant pointed out the flaws in the NCB “genuine pin” assertion, an NCB clarification to the customer stated :

“In reviewing the matter, we noted that we previously stated that your genuine card and pin were used to conduct the disputed transactions. We therefore wish to clarify that our basis for not making a refund is that taking all factors into account, we have not found evidence which supports the claim that your account was fraudulently compromised.”

In e-mails and a Zoom meeting with the NCB managing director, Tell Claudienne has argued the need for the bank to have an independent investigator to address customers’ grouses.

“Taking into account the ‘limited role’ the Code of Conduct (2016) allows the Bank of Jamaica to play in customer/bank disputes, NCB, the largest bank in Jamaica, can currently be regarded as the sole arbiter of its customers’ complaints,” Tell Claudienne said.

After the Zoom meeting with the NCB managing director on December 21, 2021, NCB sent the column the following e-mail:

“Re: Customer Complaints

Coming out of the meeting held with the CEO and the undersigned, a further review of the complaints referred to you by the following customers was conducted as promised:

1) MH

2) SH

3) SM

4) CT

5) NS

6) SB

We have not received or seen any subsequent details that would change the positions that have already been communicated. Checks also reveal that our Fraud Prevention Unit has cooperated with the police investigations undertaken to date.”

Tell Claudienne, in e-mails and conversations with the Bank of Jamaica, the Consumer Affairs Commission, the Jamaica Bankers Association, and an advisor to the Minister of finance, has also called their attention to the plight of bank account holders in the absence of a government agency in Jamaica currently to address grouses people have with the banks.

“Research done by the Tell Claudienne column shows that dissatisfied bank customers in Trinidad can complain to the country’s financial ombudsman. To bolster its credibility, the Jamaica National Bank has an ombudsman to whom disgruntled customers can make complaints. Dissatisfied Scotiabank customers in Jamaica can also make complaints to the ombudsman at the Bank of Nova Scotia headquarters in Canada.

Internationally, bank customers in Canada and the United Kingdom can take their grouses to a financial ombudsman. A special agency in the United States also arbitrates in bank disputes,” Tell Claudienne has pointed out.

On the urging of Tell Claudienne, the six individuals who complained about monies stolen from their NCB accounts also sought the intervention of the BOJ and the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC). However, the CAC said that their regulations did not allow for the organisation to order the banks to appear before its arbitration tribunal.

In the case of BOJ, the following e-mail to the Tell Claudienne column from the division chief, financial institutions supervisory division, sets out its position.

Complaint: National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited

“Reference is made to your correspondence received by electronic mail on 15 March 2022 in relation to the matter at caption.

In this regard, we would wish to outline and clarify the role and scope of the Banking Services (Deposit-Taking Institutions) (Customer Related Matters) Code of Conduct, 2016 (“the Code”) to provide some context for our response. The Code, which was issued on 29 August 2016 pursuant to section 132(4)(b) of the Banking Services Act (BSA), establishes minimum standards of good banking practice for deposit-taking institutions (DTIs), i.e. commercial banks, merchant banks and building societies in engaging in financial relationships and activities with their customers. To this end, the Bank’s [Bank of Jamaica] remit under the Code is to ensure that banks and other BSA licensees provide the relevant disclosures to customers by establishing and implementing mechanisms for handling customer complaints. In this regard, customer complaints received by the Bank are reviewed to determine whether there has been a breach of the Code by the DTI or other BSA licensee.

We must advise that the Code does not confer on Bank of Jamaica the power to resolve complaints or disputes between DTIs and their customers. However, the Bank will always engage the DTI to indicate it has received a customer complaint and that the DTI’s customer complaints processes are applied in accordance with the Code.

The Code, however, requires all DTIs to investigate complaints submitted to its offices and communicate the outcome of same within a prescribed time frame. Of note, the final determination on each complaint is made solely by the DTI based on the outcome of its own internal investigative review process. As it relates specifically to this matter, our records reflect that the Bank engaged NCBJ and NS on 27 July 2021 in relation to her complaint regarding alleged unauthorised access to her account. It further reflects that the matter was investigated and that a response was provided to NS by NCBJ in a letter dated 22 November 2020 advising of the outcome of the investigation prior to her writing to us and also thereafter, at the central bank’s request, on 27 October 2021 in respect of this matter. In view of the foregoing, we must further advise that the bank has satisfied its statutory obligations permissible by the Code in facilitating the resolution of this matter. As such, if NS is desirous of pursuing this matter further, we would recommend that she consult with an attorney-at-law who can advise her of the options available to her in circumstances like these.

We thank you for bringing your concerns to the attention of the central bank and we wish you all the very best in your efforts in assisting NS in settling this matter. “

The following is the complaint on February 8, 2021 from a schoolteacher to Tell Claudienne. She complained that most of the money she borrowed from NHT was stolen from her NCB account. Her frustrations in getting NCB to provide the police with videos are also stated in an e-mail to the bank.

Dear Claudienne,

I, NS, do hereby give permission for National Commercial Bank (NCB) to disclose all information about my account to Claudienne Edwards of the Jamaica Observer, Tell Claudienne column.

After receiving a loan from National Housing Trust on September 11, 2020 of $1,375,250.00, upon using my NCB ATM card in October I noticed that a large sum was missing from my account. I went to the bank, which gave me a statement of the various transactions. When the amount was added up it showed that $938,250.00 was missing from my account. This money was stolen between the period of October 12 – 20, 2020.

I then made a report at the Old Harbour Police Station to Detective Constable Fearon on November 11, 2020. He went to the bank and requested the footage of the transactions and was told it would be retrieved and sent to him, which up to today (February 8, 2021) he has not received the same.

I am therefore asking you please to use your kind office and help to rectify this matter for me so I can get back my money to pay my loan.

NS

On March 14, 2022, NS sent the following email to the head of retail banking at the NCB Trafalgar Road office.

“I am writing this letter with much tears, frustration, disappointment and sadness. I am crying to see how NCB can be so wicked, unfair and dishonest. My money was scammed. I am not the only person with this problem with you and everyone could certainly not be lying. I am an honest, hard-working person.

You keep on saying my case was investigated and you are standing by your findings. I keep on asking, i have been asking, the police also requested the footage of the transactions. Why do you refuse to give me the footage? You said it is from my pin, i am saying it was not done by me. The least you can do is allow me to prove myself with the footage.

What are you guys hiding? Why do i have to be asking over and over again for something that i am entitled to? I need the film footage, that’s all i’m asking.

Miss claudienne edwards is working on my behalf and i have already given her authorisation to my account, that i have signed and sent over to you from last year. She can receive any information on my behalf.

Ncb, this thing is going on too long. Come on ncb, be fair. You were to keep my money safe. Now it is missing. The least you can do is to help me to find the culprit. Why are you fighting against me instead of with me? I don’t understand. Please send the police the film footage.

You said it’s my card, then send the footage, send the footage, send the footage. The police in Old Harbour even wrote to you again in February 2022, requesting the footage and all now they have not received same. What is the matter? What are you hiding?

Please send the police the film footage.

Yours,

NS

On May 25, 2022 NS notified Tell Claudienne via Whatsapp that NCB had sent the police a “few” pictures. She said that the pictures were not clear and were mostly of her in the ABM cubicle.

“It was over 20 different transactions and they have sent only a few, and it is mostly me. What has happened to the rest?” NS asked.

“On February 24, 2021 Tell Claudienne received the following e-mail from Hillary Robertson, an advisor to the minister of finance.

“Although there is a Code of Conduct for Deposit-Taking Institutions that was developed in 2016, the current legislation does not mandate the Bank of Jamaica as a market conduct supervisor. Currently there is no explicit authority to regulate and enforce consumer protection in the deposit-taking sector. Furthermore, none of the current pieces of legislation provides for a comprehensive coverage of financial consumer protection matters.

In this regard, in the latter half of 2020 the Cabinet approved proposals for a consumer protection framework for deposit-taking institutions and other institutions supervised by the Bank of Jamaica, and also approved the issuance of instructions to the Chief Parliamentary Counsel (CPC) for the drafting of a Bill.”

Later in 2022 Tell Claudienne was informed by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) that the drafting instructions for the proposed consumer protection regulations had been sent to the CPC. In the latter half of 2022 the MOF said that the CPC had returned the document to them and it was being reviewed by the Bank of Jamaica.

Have a problem with a store, utility, a company? Telephone 876-936-9436 or Cell # 876-484-1349 or write to: Tell Claudienne c/o Sunday Finance, Jamaica Observer, 40-421/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5; or e-mail:edwardsc@jamaicaobserver.com. Please include a contact phone number.