Dear Editor,
Reference is made to Doreen de Caires’s letter which appeared in your Saturday, January 10, 2015 edition captioned, ‘Why is Republic Bank demanding character references and ID from customers of long standing?’
We note with understanding, the concerns shared and will contact her to clarify all areas of concern.
In addition, customers in receipt of the related communication are encouraged to contact their respective branch where we look forward to guiding and assisting the process.
We wish to assure that our customers’ satisfaction remains our highest priority, even as we seek to adhere to new local laws and international banking requirements that require financial institutions to implement specific measures to mitigate the risks of terrorism and money laundering.
The consequences of non-adherence by banks can be severe and include sanctions from regulatory bodies and severance of international correspondent banking relationships which are critical to ensuring international trade and our customers’ business.
One of the challenges is ensuring that, as far as possible, customer information remains current, since customers’ financial practices and personal information such as place of residence and employment change over time, and hence our letters to customers as part of this initiative for the relevant updates.
As always, we welcome customer feedback and thank Mrs de Caires for sharing hers.
We look forward to being of continued service.
Yours faithfully,
Michelle Johnson
Manager
Marketing and Communications
Republic Bank (Guyana)
Limited
