Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck has himself waded into the controversy of new and impending increases in bank fees islandwide, slamming financial institutions for peddling paltry customer service while raking in billions of profit.

Chuck, speaking at a commissioning ceremony for 41 new Justices of the Peace (JPs) in St Elizabeth on Thursday (January 28), lamented a recent experience where he was charged J$2,561 for a two-sentence document he needed to submit to the Integrity Commission.

He found the fee ironic, given the event he was addressing, as JPs are expected by the Jamaican Government to give of their services voluntarily.

“And as I speak of service, your service must be voluntary. And you know, it is hard in Jamaica to ask JPs to put themselves out and provide voluntary service when, nowadays, everybody [charges]. Not to mention the banks now,” he said.

“This week, my wife said to me ‘You asked the bank to write a letter to the Integrity Commission?’ and I said ‘Yes. It was only a couple days ago’. [She said] ‘Well, the bank has charged you $2,561’—to write a letter,” the minister added.

According to him, a document merely detailed Chuck and his wife’s bank balances, including joint savings status as at December 31, 2021.

“Two lines! And you sign it, send it to the Integrity Commission—$2,561,” Chuck exclaimed.

Arguing that the “Government is concerned about the bank fees”, Chuck rose to stand in support of recent statements by Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke, who criticised the move by Jamaica’s two largest financial institutions—National Commercial Bank and Scotiabank Jamaica.

“I just want to say that the Government is concerned about how customers of banks are being treated,” he added.

Chuck revealed that the Government is apprehensive about drafting a legislative response to the ‘bank cartel’ modus operandi, however, their disregard for the average Jamaican depositor is shameful.

“We don’t want to legislate because you can’t legislate everything. You expect, in a free market society, that competition will take care of good service. But while the banks are increasing fees, they are providing the worst [customer] service in the history of banking in this country,” said Minister Chuck.

“When you see how banks operate? Every bank you pass, you see lines outside and while the service is depreciating, instead of hiring more staff, they are laying off staff. Instead of putting up more banks, they are closing banks. I can’t understand how the banks in Jamaica can behave like this,” he argued further.

The justice minister was beside himself in disbelief that banks could rake in their billions year after year off a sub-standard customer experience.

“[Banks] are making billions of dollars in fees for service, and the service is the worst you can ever get across Jamaica. Somehow, the Government doesn’t want to legislate but if the banks form themselves into a cartel, and set fees, then the Government has to intervene because we run a free market system,” Chuck mused.

“It means competition must take over. The banks are the best example of a free market system but, in Jamaica, they give the free market system a bad name because they seem to be operating like a cartel. Setting fees. Setting interest charges. So you get the same set of costs whichever bank you go and now you’re getting the same terrible service,” he said.

WATCH:

As public outcry loudens over the NCB January 2022 fee guide, Scotiabank also readies to introduce a new regimen of charges effective March.

Reacting four years late, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), on Tuesday, wrote to the Government it forms for urgent action in addressing the new slew of fee increases, much to the chagrin of Twitter users.

Holness, in his remarks, called on banks to ‘consider the social context’ with which a bank fee increase could pose to hard-working Jamaicans.

Minister Clarke also slammed deposit-taking institutions as being ‘tone-deaf’.

Speaking on day two of the 17th Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) Regional Investments and Capital Markets Conference, held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, Clarke said: “When it comes to the setting of bank fees, it would seem as if our commercial banks are tone-deaf. There seems to be a callous disregard, for the economic circumstances of a plurality of Jamaicans. How else do you explain that the banks have introduced a fee of $25 in one instance and $30.85 in another instance to withdraw your money from an ATM that they have put in place? And, if you use another bank to withdraw your money, it’s $60. Before this round of increases, it was free.”

People’s National Party (PNP) Member of Parliament Fitz Jackson, dismissing assertions from Matthew Samuda, is still welcoming the promise of action by the Holness Administration after it played an instrumental role in killing the Banking Services Act in Parliament in February 2018.

Not reneging on its new suite of fees, NCB today revealed a new account, On The Go Lite, for which customers will be ‘safe’ from incurred charges, including at its own automated teller machines (ATMs) and point-of-sale (POS).

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