Dear Editor,
My husband and I have a safety deposit box at Republic Bank, Water Street.
We have had this box since 1964 with the then Royal Bank of Canada, Broad Street which later was transferred to Water Street.
My husband took our daughter to add her name to be authorised to open the box in the event of any emergency. He was told that because our daughter does not have an account with the bank she would have to get two references from persons who have accounts with that bank before her name could be added; no staff member of the bank either can be authorised to give her a reference. If it was a total stranger’s name we were adding, I could understand the need for a reference − but our daughter? Come on Republic Bank, get your act together.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
Editor’s note
We sent a copy of this letter to Mrs Michelle Johnson, Manager, Marketing & Communications, Republic Bank, for any comments she might have wished to make, and received the following response:
“Thank you for the opportunity to provide a response to [the] letter [from name provided] which we received today under cover of your letter dated April 21, 2009.
“Our investigations have revealed that there may have been a misunderstanding of the Bank’s requirements.
“We are pleased to advise that our Manager at the Water Street Branch has since made contact with [name provided] to clarify the issue and he has initiated steps to assure a speedy resolution by tomorrow, April 24, 2009.
“All for your information and guidance.”