While Republic Bank Guyana Limited (RBL) has still not made a public statement on its ongoing investigation of fraudulent activity on its Visa International Debit Cards, customers who have been affected by the activity say the bank is only making payments for transactions within the last three months.
Charles McGarrell, who told Stabroek News last week that he had lost millions in fraudulent transactions, explained that while the bank has accepted responsibility and committed to reimbursing any fraudulent transactions during the last three months, it has baulked at reimbursing the sums which predate that period.
“After the story was printed, I was invited to a meeting at the bank where I was asked to write a letter identifying the sums which I believe were fraudulently accessed. The officer who spoke to me was, however, very clear that based on Visa’s policy, they are only accepting responsibility for three months of transactions,” he explained, before adding that according to the officer, it is the responsibility of the customer to examine the statement, which is mailed every quarter.
“He was keen for me to accept some form of responsibility, stressing that the bank could not know I didn’t authorise these transactions if I didn’t tell them but that is not true. The frequency alone should’ve indicated that something was wrong. Who buys $20,000 in Digicel credit in one day using $2,000 transactions?” he questioned.
Another customer who wrote to Stabroek News about the issue bemoaned the fact that customers who had no reason to suspect fraud are being penalised for not being vigilant. “This is unfair to the bank’s customers who have been unsuspecting victims to these cases of outright fraud. Whether the fraud occurred several months or years ago, the fact remains that it occurred and the bank should take responsibility and not attempt to hide behind the veneer of its agreement with Visa. This is poor customer service, at best, on the bank’s part to dismiss customers’ legitimate evidence of fraud,” Chontelle Sewett wrote in a letter published in last Thursday edition of Stabroek News.
On May 15th, the bank said that through its “robust monitoring systems,” it was able to quickly identify cases where customers’ cards were compromised and to effectively minimise the risk to other customers.
“The Bank is taking the necessary steps to regularise all affected accounts using a well-defined, standard process, focused on reducing customer inconvenience. The Bank regrets the inconvenience to its customers and advises that impacted customers will be asked to confirm and validate their transactions to assist with this process,” RBL’s statement added.
Since then, the entity has been silent, with Customer Relationship Specialist Marlyn Reynolds, telling Stabroek News last week that “there are no new releases. No updates. The latest release is on the website.”
Dr Gobind Ganga, Governor of the Bank of Guyana, which regulates commercial banks in Guyana, has, however, stated that RBL has since reported that it has compensated some customers and is still investigating other claims.
“They have told us that they have repaid more than $5 million to in excess of 50 customers and are investigating other claims. Currently, it appears they are restraining customers from using certain features or accounts,” he said.
In fact, according to a source, Republic Bank has restricted the use of its Visa Debit Card for online transactions. Persons who wish to conduct such transactions are required to make contact with the bank’s headquarters in Trinidad to verify their identity, after which they have 24 hours to complete the transaction. This was communicated to some customers via a “blitz message” on Saturday June 8th.
