Est.2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

Banner promoting anonymous crime reporting with a phone and contact number 1 800 TIPS (8477), featuring the Crime Stoppers logo and a QR code for submitting tips.

Keeping an eye on bank fees

← Back

Your message to the BLOGMASTER was sent

CONTACT THE BLOGMASTER ONLY

The acting Governor also disclosed that the Bank has indicated to commercial banks that it will engage with stakeholders on the question of bank fees and charges (BT).

RBC
Royal Bank of Canada

Last week Scotiabank shelved a plan to charge customers a third party transfer fee processed on the Automatic Clearing House (ACH) and Real Time Payments (RTP) platforms. The bank’s public disclosure on the decision to charge triggered a directive from the Central Bank to all financial institutions using ACH and RTP that such a fee would contravene the National Payments System Act (NPSA) 2021.

Yesterday Central Bank issued a second communication to advise RBC had agreed to stop charging its customers for third party transfers using the ACH and RTP. From all reports RBC has been flying under the radar for an extended period. It other words, if Scotiabank had not communicated a plan to charge the public, including the Central Bank and so called consumer watchdog organisations, would have been ‘non the wiser’.

Central Bank has advised that effective 12 January 2024 RBC will discontinue the illegal charge and refund fees collected from the 2 January 2024, the date of the first Central Bank directive to financial institutions. Based on public reports posted to social media RBC has been charging customers a third party fee long before the 2 January 2024. The question for the regulator – if public feedback is correct, why was RBC asked to refund the illegal fee from 2 January 2024 and not when it was first introduced?

Barbadians have been posting that other banks are charging for business transactions using ACH and it continues. How difficult is it for the Central Bank to confirm from ALL financial institutions whether a fee is being applied to ACH and RTP transactions and to fully advise an unsuspecting public.

RBC to stop charging customers and refund them for ACH transactions

Published on
January 10, 2024

The Central Bank of Barbados wishes to advise that following discussions with RBC Royal Bank, RBC has confirmed that effective January 12, 2024, it will no longer charge its customers for transactions they make using the automated clearing house (ACH), including through the real-time payments (RTP) system.

RBC has also indicated that it will reimburse customers who have incurred these charges since the Central Bank’s January 2, 2024 directive that no fees should be applied to such transactions. These refunds will be made no later than January 19, 2024.

“We have been engaging with RBC for the past week, and they have indicated that while they intend to comply with our instructions, they need some time to reconfigure their system,” revealed Alwyn Jordan, acting Governor of the Central Bank. “They have also committed to reversing the ACH-related transaction charges their clients incurred from January 2, 2024 until the end of the reconfiguration period, so that they are not disadvantaged by the delay.”

The acting Governor also disclosed that the Bank has indicated to commercial banks that it will engage with stakeholders on the question of bank fees and charges.

Barbados Today

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

52 responses to “Keeping an eye on bank fees”

  1. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    This issue shall be with us for a while yet. Maybe, until the end of time.

    Again prople will fail to see bank fees as integral to what capitalism has degenerate into.

    This is the financialization of everything and within such the rise once again of the International rent seekers who will charge us for using our own money.

    Maybe, even for fresh air!

    And yes, we should not forget that banking has, since the entry of neoliberalim, from 1980, undergone profound changes, especially driven by technology.

    Indeed, Barbados is not alone. Almost everywhere one goes this issue about the pervasiveness of the rentier class raises it’s ugly head.

    And there shall be blood in the streets. For example the governor of the Central Bank of Belize is trying to impose radically reduced fees on the high street banks there.

    However, given the contours of ownership within the local sector, the now dominant international class interest and the propensity for certain members of this rentier class to resort to court systems favouring them, that government is again likely to find itself on the losing end of court decisions from a lawfare system heavily in the keep of banksters.

  2. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    And yes, even non activity fees can lead one to be in the army of the socalled unbanked, as derisively known.

    Regardless of what one does these banksters shall not be denied their pound of flesh …… from the chest area. LOL

  3. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    That this governor of a central bank, in Barbados, an accolyte of this very international banking fraternity, could have any genuine interest in this matter, supportive of depositors beggars belief.

    The fox keepeth the hen house!

    We were never persuaded that he’s minded to destroy what has and will feed him, even after he leaves the CB.

    Confusion imposed by a Mottley regime imbued with the fanciful notion that there is a developmental path through the IMF systems and their people.

    What an idiot history shall prove her to have been!

  4. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Charging us to use our own money AFTER they have had the use of it for a while AND paying no interest!

    Only sick and twisted minds would think of that.

    David,

    Wuhlaus! You transfer children from St. John’s School because of health hazards only to expose them to injury at Mount Tabor?

    Nobody inspected the building before the transfer?

    Help!

  5. John A Avatar
    John A

    Lets ompare a bank to any other business. if say massy operated like a bank here would be their charges.

    Coming through the front door. $1 enentry fee.
    Removing items from shelf to put in cart 1% restock fee
    Cart rental $2
    Check out fee for staff cost 5% of purchase.
    Credit card fee 5% of purchase
    Carpark usage fee $5

    These AND the store markup would be your cost to shop! So if we would never pay these charges at Massy why pay them at a bank?

  6. David Avatar
    David

    In this 2018 blog a question was asked relating to how the question is maintaining the quality of our physical infrastructure. The Chamberlin bridge was mentioned as an example – Bridge Collapse Should be a Warning for Local Authorities.

    We do a poor job of maintenance as you know.

  7. Tim Ward Avatar
    Tim Ward

    That was a new prefabricated unit de floor collapsed was inspection done after installation

  8. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    They are in the markup at Massey.

  9. John A Avatar
    John A

    @ Vincent

    Exactly my point. The bank on top of taking deposits at 1% and lending at 7% which is a 700 percent markup also capitalise on every thing else. What other business you know with a cost of sale at 1 dollar could sell that item for $7? In my day you were lucking to get a 40% markup farless a 700% one!

    The spread here is way too big between deposit and loan rates and it appears the central bank can do little about it. The spread here is nearly twice the global average so no wonder the banks making such massive profits on top of charging for every little thing on the side.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @John A

    Your comment is too general. What are the expenses of a financial institution? Do you know?

  11. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    JohnA
    You seem to forget how your fav ex-MoF changed the interest rate regimen and why?

  12. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Symbolic?
    I get the impression that we are just falling to pieces. The remedial fixes then have to fixed; people proposing new laws and then not following them. Thank God for the few who rush out to defend every wrong done by the administration, without them we would all know that we are mad.

  13. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    From BT
    “The prime minister’s presence and brand, and the way she is putting the Barbados brand on the world stage…that is one of the great component parts, the degree of comfort that it gives people to come and invest in the island. No question about it,” Hutton said (Terra Real Estate)

  14. David Avatar
    David

    It seems the prime minister is doing her job by growing our Barbados brand. However, there is so much work to be done at a parochial level to be able to support the elements to what constitutes that brand. If we continue to fail to live up to expectations with failing infrastructure, poor customer service, lack of imagination to grow Product and Services, ineffective public service, redundant governance structure etc, it will be for nothing.

  15. John A Avatar
    John A

    @Northern

    No cant forget sinkyuh, but ask yourself why this party has not changed it back yet. Every government wants to cram their paper down the publics craw by leaving little options for us. After all if you let the banks take we money at 1% then government paper at 5% sound like a real good option. This whole mess was created so as to funnel investors to government paper as the only viable option.

    Unfortunately not enough people recognise it so we accept it as the norm.

  16. John Avatar
    John

    Wonder how SAP got the NIS contract???

    https://blogs.sap.com/2015/04/22/teaming-up-in-barbados/

  17. John Avatar
    John

    Hopefully not through its normal Modus Operandi!!

    https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67940748

  18. John Avatar
    John

    NIS in Trinidad probably operating the same system too!!

  19. John Avatar
    John

    Massy like it in shit too!!

    https://eightify.app/summary/social-issues/be-an-upstander-speak-up-against-wrongdoing-angelique-parisot-potter

  20. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    JohnA
    The reversion may be easier said than done.

  21. Gordon Avatar
    Gordon

    Why. The TED was from years back, she just left massy.

  22. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Gordon
    Her departure (leave?) in late Dec came on the heels of several events, incl a controversial report on Massy training. She had previously applauded certain questions at the Republic AGM.
    Bout hey, we don’t like probing questions which challenge the existing rulers. In either business or government

  23. John A Avatar
    John A

    @ Northern

    To be honest i dont see much change coming, at least not for the investors. The government has to have a market that drives us to their paper. They need to sell debt to keep the civil service and the inefficient entities going. BWA, Transport Board, CBC and on the list goes. Pick one you like.

  24. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Another beauty
    From BT
    “for nearly two decades, Portvale had been selling sugar at a large loss to an undisclosed private company, while the firm continued to earn large profits year after year.”
    “The senior economic adviser (Ambassador Mascoll) who declined to name the firm”

    Whomever you worship, may they help us.

  25. David Avatar
    David

    All at the taxpayers left holding the bag. Why are the names of the offenders not being called?

    ‘Hundreds of millions’ in losses for gov’t at Portvale Sugar Factory while private firm reaped sweets
    As the government exits the sugar industry, divesting its farms and factories to the cooperative movement, one of its top economists revealed more than a dozen years of massive losses for the island’s sole remaining sugar factory.
    Senior economic advisor Ambassador Clyde Mascoll blamed a substantial difference between wholesale and retail sugar prices, which was mostly controlled by a single private sector firm, for the “hundreds of millions” the former state-owned Portvale Sugar Factory lost.
    But indicating that the price difference had ended, he suggested that an obstacle to viability had been removed for the cooperative taking the government’s sugar growing and milling business.
    The revelation came during Thursday’s Down to Brasstacks programme on VOB, which covered the Agricultural Business Company Ltd. (ABC) and Barbados Energy and Sugar Company Inc.’s (BESC) takeover of the former Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC).
    Ambassador Mascoll noted that while the sugar industry had been struggling for years owing to several inefficiencies, one of the primary areas of great worry was the fact that, for nearly two decades, Portvale had been selling sugar at a large loss to an undisclosed private company, while the firm continued to earn large profits year after year.
    He explained: “We were selling sugar at $1 300 per tonne, and it was being retailed for $3 200 per tonne. We were selling Strike A sugar [higher grade], for $1 850 per tonne, and it was being retailed for in excess of $4 000 per tonne. When Portvale made the decision to sell that sugar, it was then asked to package it at a cost to Portvale, without the price being changed.
    “So imagine you are incurring costs, but you are not imposing a higher price…. It therefore means it constitutes a loss to the entity. Those kinds of practices have already been stopped.”
    The senior economic adviser who declined to name the firm also said that due to the great differential between sales by Portvale and the company, the government lost out on millions of dollars over the last 13 years.
    He said: “A private sector interest benefited from it because they recognised that the price of sugar did not change in 13 years, even though the costs were increasing. Portvale itself was packaging the sugar for the individuals, who simply collected the sugar, and carried it to the retailer, and in that space, Portvale was not able to sell its sugar for more than the $1 300 or $1 850 that I told you about.
    “Even though the price was stated at those two figures, when Portvale then packaged the sugar it did not increase the price to that distributor. So who enjoyed it? The people who were in between the manufacturer of the sugar, and the retailing of the sugar. Over that period, the government made hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.”
    Ambassador Mascoll added that because of this discrepancy and previously known inefficiencies within the system, the island has also not seen the true profits which could have been achieved with its high-quality molasses.“We have been producing the best molasses in the world in Barbados – by accident, because of inefficiencies, and that is because all of the sucrose remains in the molasses and therefore the purity of our molasses is 58 per cent compared to the 32 per cent imported,” he told the radio audience. “Portvale was forced to sell its molasses, its superior molasses, for the same price as the imported molasses.”
    Ambassador Mascoll stated that the new path that ABC and BESC are aiming to take in the sector would result in a proper appraisal of sugar, molasses and other byproducts.
    He said: “When people looked at the sugar industry in the past, they evaluated Portvale’s success purely on the basis of the production of sugar, but what we discovered in that by producing sugar, you also produced molasses. So, therefore, if you take the costs of Portvale and divide it only by the sugar production, you are going to understate what it was really doing.
    There is no additional costs really to the production of molasses.
    “Previous studies of the industry never separated sugar from molasses, and therefore never appreciated the value. The real future in sugar and molasses is actually molasses because the domestic market for sugar can only hover around 4 000 tonnes per year. But currently, Portvale supplies only 10 per cent of the domestic market for molasses. Therefore, going forward we can make a difference.” (SB)

    Source: BT

  26. David Avatar
    David

    We know those that benefited from the windfall are members of the money class. Money talks here there and everywhere.

  27. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    General comment
    How could the smartest men in the world be wrong and be fooled so often? How can the smartest and most literate people in the world be mislead so often.

    You should be convinced by now that the missteps and mistakes are not accidental, but they are cleverly designed to put money in the pocket sof some. It is only when the goose is about to expire that startling revelations are made to the public. Suddenly, we are made aware of what was going wrong for decades.

    Have you noticed that, with these confessions, there is no finger pointing. No names are called; we have adopted the equivalent of pointing at guilty parties with our shoulders

    I must confess that I did not read the whole story. I am tired of recieving one quarter of the story. I am tired of these long winded articles that omit the salient points.

    As an example, do you recall when an underground structure that could shed some light on our history including the work of slaves was just smashed to smithereens. It was a short lived story and the names of those engaged in wanton destruction was never mentioned. Par for the course.

  28. John Avatar
    John

    It isn’t GOB that has been robbed, it is ordinary Bajans who are being encouraged into the COOP where a fox is waiting to drain what’s left of their money.

  29. John Avatar
    John

    https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/110086819

  30. John Avatar
    John

    https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/101725985

  31. John Avatar
    John

    https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/100323311

  32. TLSN Avatar
    TLSN

    It appears to be a stich up between the government and private enterprise. It’s anyone guess as to whom would have received monies in some offshore Swiss bank account.

    The journalists need to do some research. Quaker John has made a start.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indies_Sugar_%26_Trading_Company

  33. TLSN Avatar
    TLSN

    They mock we. They urinate on we. They defecate on we. We like it so.

    “It isn’t GOB that has been robbed, it is ordinary Bajans who are being encouraged into the COOP where a fox is waiting to drain what’s left of their money.”

  34. David Avatar
    David

    Without one thread of evidence or some less than reasonable explanation a few of you would level accusations at Barbados CooP. Are any of you members and therefore privy to insider information?

  35. Grantley Dobayan Avatar
    Grantley Dobayan

    The company is likely Windward Commodities, who with BAMC were JV owners of WISTCo.

  36. GreenMonkey Avatar
    GreenMonkey

    COVID-19: A Global Financial Operation
    By Michael Bryant

    The COVID phenomenon cannot be understood without understanding the un-televised 2019-2020 unprecedented financial collapse threatening the entire global financial system.

    The Covid-19 Pandemic story makes little sense when viewed through the lens of health, safety and science. Viewed through the lens of money, power, control, and wealth transfer, however, then all of it makes perfect sense.

    The lockdowns, mandatory muzzles, anti-social distancing and the plethora of additional measures did nothing to protect or improve public health- they were never designed to do so.

    The numerous mandates birthed by the onset of the Covid-19 scenario were all designed to deliberately break the global economy and crush small businesses as well as break people’s minds, will and the social fabric, in order to “build back a better society” that conforms to the dystopian visions of the psychopaths waging this class war.

    The desired result is a billionaire’s utopia, in which they will own and control the planet in the form of a techno-feudal fiefdom where digitally branded humanity is regulated like cattle in a super-surveilled technocracy.

    What this manufactured crisis conveniently camouflages is that we are in the midst of a planned total economic collapse- a collapse which was inevitable.

    The timing of the COVID fraud became necessary as world markets were faced with an emergency debt crisis in Fall of 2019 which popped up in formerly mostly liquid markets: Repo Markets, Money Markets and Foreign Exchange Markets.

    Western governments began a rush to salvage this decaying system, stem this cataclysmic landslide, bail out large scale investors and proactively install a security infrastructure to control the inevitable social disorder resulting from this collapse. This would be followed by a global financial reset, after a period of hyperinflation, destroying both the value of debt and the corresponding paper claims.

    The financial system was already in an advanced stage of decline by the fall of 2019 as illustrated by the Fed taking over the Repo market in September to short-circuit the Repocalypse. This collapse began in earnest in 2008/09 and attempts over the last decade and a half to salvage this corrupt economic system only delayed the inevitable.

    More: https://off-guardian.org/2023/01/02/covid-19-a-global-financial-operation/

  37. John A Avatar
    John A

    Well I got one question. When last did the entity that controlled Portvale independantly audited? Was it around the same time as the NIS? Did their audit at the time have in their notes any mention of molasses revenue?

    Another tra la la

  38. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @JohnA
    There is a 2016 report, possibly others, let Google be your friend 😊
    The challenge is based on that report, WISTCo only accounted for a small % of Portvale sales. Hence the spread Dr.Mascoll alluded to maybe accurate, but the resulting dollar totals small ISH.
    It (BAMC) was another Caves, in that the annual GoB GRANT exceeded other revenues.

  39. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    You are likely correct.
    The Docherty (2) and McKay directors are employees of Windward.

  40. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    John
    Since you are a sugar man, and a hiker….I see that while it ended in ’13, 3 GEL long term employees were formerly on that Board (’10-’13). What is the GEL connection to sugar? They didn’t own sugar lands, and were long gone from food retailing by that time. Or was it just WIRD and cured meats?

  41. John A Avatar
    John A

    @ Northern

    Well they only 8 years later with reports, thats acceptable by state standards apparently. Nothing surprises me anymore with these entities. If Mr Mascoll is correct, that is a massive oversight of reporting from those involved. How profitable or not profitable is the industry if considerable revenues go unaccounted!

  42. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    JohnA
    Each time one rears it’s head, the obvious mismanagement, mixed in with a good dose of corruption, sorry, incompetence, astounds.
    The sad part is most citizens don’t know, the sadder part is as many don’t care.
    Wha yuh want me to do? is the national refrain.

  43. David Avatar
    David

    They dont’ care mixed with a heavy dose of don’t understand.

  44. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    “Don’t care …don’t understand..”
    Suddenly everyone is getting to understand the concept of brass bowls…

  45. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    another wtf (rance ) revelation.

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2024/01/12/hundreds-of-millions-in-losses-for-govt-at-portvale-sugar-factory-while-private-firm-reaped-sweets/

  46. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    ” Senior economic advisor Ambassador Clyde Mascoll blamed a substantial difference between wholesale and retail sugar prices, which was mostly controlled by a single private sector firm, for the “hundreds of millions” the former state-owned Portvale Sugar Factory lost.”

    bushie brassbowls do not need to know the name of the ” private sector firm “

  47. Give 'em enough rope Avatar
    Give ’em enough rope

    the best way to defeat a Government is to do nothing and just let them screw themselves up all by themselves, the Bajan public are excellent at replacing bad to mediocre Government and will switch to let the other side in

  48. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Read and report
    https://www.barbadosparliament.com/uploads/sittings/attachments/3e6981be99b2ab9ba39aabac7c9b480e.pdf

  49. David Avatar
    David

    BANKS’ WINDFALL

    By Shawn Cumberbatch

    shawncumberbatch@nationnews.com

    Commercial banks operating in Barbados are earning significantly higher profits, including a substantial income contribution from fees and commissions paid by customers.

    As Barbadians continue to publicly oppose bank fees for electronic and other financial transactions, a consolidated income statement detailing the performance of all commercial banks revealed they earned $183.3 million in after-tax profits in 2022, and a further $218 million posttax in the first nine months of last year.

    A major contribution has come from fees and commissions income, which was $147.4 million in 2022, and $99.3 million between January and September last year.

    The document also shows that interest paid on savings deposits has plummeted from $99.2 million in 2014 to $2.4 million in 2022 and $1.14 million in the first nine months of last year.

    RBC Royal Bank, CIBC First Caribbean, Scotiabank, Republic Bank, First Citizens, and Sagicor’s digital bank, the last which started operations early last year, are the commercial banks in this market.

    The combined income statement of their performance revealed that after paying tax of about $49 million, commercial banks retained profits of $183.3 million in 2022. The banks also earned after-tax profits of about $218 million in the first nine months of last year, having paid taxes of $10.5 million.

    Based on the income statement, commercial bank income is getting a boost from fees and commissions. In 2022, these financial institutions earned $147.4 million from fees and commissions, and a further $99.3 million between January and September last year.

    A breakdown of the income shows that in 2022 commercial banks earned most of their fees and commissions income – $42.6 million – from “other fees from residents”, followed by $42.3 million from service charge on deposits, followed by $36.6 million on loans and advances, and $25.4 million from investment, banking, advisory, brokering and underwriting.

    It was a similar outcome between January and September last year. Income from loans and advances was $29.8 million, followed by $29.2 million from other fees from residents, $27.1 million from service charge on deposits, and $12. 8 million from investment, banking, advisory, brokering and underwriting.

    In terms of other categories of income for commercial banks, while earnings from fees and commissions have been increasing, their consolidated income statement outlined that interest income on loans and advances have trended down since December 2016 when it totalled $556.7 million.

    In 2022 this category of interest income was $312.6 million and in the first nine months of last year it was $227.6 million. Most of this was contributed by households ($195 million in 2022 and $136 million between January and March last year) .

    The banks have also been earning less interest income on their investment over the last few years. The figure for this category was $104.5 million in 2022 and $74.8 million in the first three quarters of 2023.

    Regarding the interest Barbadians are earning on their savings accounts, the consolidated income statement showed this has fallen substantially since 2014.

    Commercial banks paid households about $73 million on their savings deposits in 2014, and $37.5 million in 2015. After falling further to $12.8 million in 2016, Barbadians were paid $1.01 million in interest on their bank accounts in 2022, and $814 000 between January and September last year.

    The consolidated income statement also shared that commercial banks’ operating expenses have also increased. These expenses were $370 million in 2020, $392.7 million in 2021 and $422.6 million in 2022, before reaching $312.6 million between January and September last year.

    Operating expenses included staff-related costs of $127.1 million in 2022 and $90.2 million in the first nine months of last year.

    As commercial bank profits increase, the 2022 Financial Stability Report published by the Central Bank and Financial Services Commission attributed it to the fact that “the local economy continued to rebound from the restrictions associated with the pandemic”.

    However, as a measure of profitability, the report said the commercial banks’ return on average assets (ROAA) moved up slightly from a low 1.1 per cent in 2021 to 1.3 per cent by the end of March 2023.

    On the issue of fees, the report noted that since 2020, the Central Bank of Barbados “has been working with the commercial banking industry to have a number of banking service fees removed or reduced on certain categories of retail accounts”.

    “The Bank took an additional step by issuing a directive in December 2022, eliminating all fees charged on large deposits. This was followed by further engagement that resulted in all commercial banks committing to offer at least one savings account that does not attract any fees, effective June 1, 2023,” it stated.

    Source: Nation

  50. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Hants
    Brass bowls is having to wait for Mascoll to uncover the shiite and to fix it..

    What happened before this…?
    Not one asked?

The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.

Trending

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading