(Trinidad Guardian) Amid continuing tension about foreign exchange availability, Scotiabank T&T announced yesterday that effective December 1, 2024, it would reduce the maximum US dollar spending limit per calendar month on its credit cards until further notice.
In a notice to its customers, the locally listed, majority Canadian owned commercial bank, said the US dollar spending limit on the Aero Mastercard Black would be reduced to US$5,000 and on all other personal cards the limit would be reduced to US$2,000.
The bank said that all TT-dollar transactions conducted online or at local merchants remain unaffected.
Scotiabank also emphasised that the ScotiaCard Visa debit card would no longer offer overseas point-of-sale purchases nor ATM withdrawals.
The decision by Scotiabank to cut the US-dollar limit on its credit cards, follows similar moves by other local banks.
In September last year, Republic Bank advised its customers that effective September 21, 2023 changes will come into effect in a notice sent to customers and posted to its website. RBL said effective September 21, the US-dollar limit on its credit cards would be reduced down from US$10,000 to US$5,000 per cycle.
And on July 19, 2024, RBC Royal Bank said it would cut its credit card
holders’ monthly foreign currency spending limit by $10,000 (US$1,500), effective September 1
In the bank’s notice to its customers, RBC said, “Personal banking and business banking clients (excluding private banking) monthly limits will be reduced from TT$51,000 (US$7,500) to TT$41,000 (US$6,000) in forex equivalent to a maximum of the account’s credit limit, whichever is less.”
Meanwhile, Ramsaran’s Dairy Products (RDP) owner and founder Rajnanan Ramsaran has lashed out at Finance Minister Colm Imbert for implying that his company could have received foreign exchange from Exim Bank.
In a news release yesterday, Ramsaran said this is deceitful and deliberately misleading the public.
He also claimed that the minister may have breached the dairy product company’s right to privacy by asking the Exim Bank whether or not the company requested foreign exchange from the bank.
“I call on the Minister to disclose whom he contacted, how he conducted these inquiries, and by what authority he made these disclosures public. As a result, I have asked my attorney at law, Mr. Richard Jaggasar, to investigate the legal ramifications of this disclosure and what action can be taken to address this serious breach,” he stressed.
On Tuesday, in a post on X, Imbert said he checked with Exim Bank and based on his inquiries, was told that Ramsaran has “never applied to the Exim Bank for forex.”
The minister’s comments follow letters from Ramsaran to the Central Bank, Auditor General, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on October 25 about the lack of information on the distribution of forex.
He also wrote to Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar for assistance in this matter.
Ramsaran went on to say in his news release that Imbert’s social media posts and obsession with Eximbank attempts to distract from the core issue at hand, which is, the inequitable distribution of foreign exchange.
Further, he said his understanding regarding the “window” set up at Exim Bank during COVID-19 is that the facility only applied to specific essential goods and that the facility no longer applies.
“The country’s forex is managed by the Central Bank, which distributes to authorised dealers including the commercial banks for sale to the public.”
The businessman noted that over the last few weeks, there has been an outcry from the public and business owners expressing their struggles and frustration with accessing forex.
He said the Ministry of Finance must be held accountable and liable for the shortage and perceived inequitable distribution of forex to the nation.
