Banks end dormant account fees, embrace tech for monitoring
Published:Friday | July 19, 2024 | 12:11 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Staff Reporter
Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) Deputy Governor Jide Lewis says all local banks have ceased the practice of applying fees to dormant savings accounts.
The application of fees to dormant or inactive accounts has been a contentious issue for years, with many Jamaicans calling for the practice to be halted.
At a meeting of the Economy and Production Committee of Parliament on Thursday, Lewis said that the banks have moved away from using manual processes to monitor dormant accounts and have introduced technology to carry out the task. He said the technology has been verified by the BOJ.
In addition, the banks have introduced a transaction-monitoring system to allow senior staff members to detect and identify employees who try to access dormant accounts.
Committee member Anthony Hylton said he was pleased with the news, noting that he had been advised by a senior banking official in the past that it was bank employees who posed a risk to dormant accounts.
“My concern leading up to now has been that if members of staff were the ones accessing these accounts, then the responsibility must devolve on the banks to address this situation,” the opposition lawmaker said.
However, Lewis said when a bank employee is involved in internal fraud, there are actions that the institution will take in addition to the intervention of the police.
He said that banks are also required to report internal fraud to the BOJ.
But Hylton said where depositors’ savings are at risk and they suffer loss as a result of the actions of bank employees, the account holder should be able to recover losses through civil action in the courts.
Lewis said in all such cases, the customers’ accounts are reinstated and the liability is borne by the banks.
He said that once it is established that the customer was acting in accordance with the terms and conditions of the product that he had signed up for and there was evidence that the account was tampered with, the bank must fully reinstate the customer.
The senior BOJ official said that under the code of conduct by which the banks are required to comply, if the customer is aggrieved, he can write to the licensee outlining his loss and the need for redress.
If the bank refuses to comply, the customer can seek the intervention of the central bank. However, Lewis said the customer also has the option of taking their matter to the courts.