Dear Editor,
I have realized for decades that, as a people, we have achieved a level of complete and utter apathy to the extent that we allow inconveniences and outright procedural stupidity to govern our lives to the point of paralysis. Our banking practices are glaringly demonstrative of this.
I have a daughter in university abroad. In order to facilitate her day to day needs, a bank account seemed to be the most efficient method.
Walking in to the Bank of America, we were greeted by Matt. Matt does not know me from Adam, as the saying goes, but 15 minutes later, my daughter walked out with a bank account complete with debit card and applications for credit cards and other services.
Conversely, opening a bank account in The Bahamas has become akin to a mental cross-fit trial. It is a virtual joke. I am convinced that the intent is to drive customers away (or nuts), but alas there is nowhere to turn. They are all the same and their sameness is seemingly intentional.
OK let's give the banks the benefit of the doubt. I get it. The first world (FW) has imposed laborious processes upon us to prevent corruption. One such process lies at the foundation of the banking system: opening a bank account.
First off FW was primarily concerned about its own citizens stashing chunks of taxable or ill-gained income in our local banks. FW folk must sit in a room and laugh at what we came up with in order to comply with their collective desire to prevent tax evasion and Monday laundering. They must just be rolling over when they see the obstacles we have placed on the average citizen when it comes to opening an account.
I doubt seriously if their target was our 16-year-old children trying to open their first savings account. But I get it. Discretion leads to abuse. So is the appropriate response to insist that our 16-year-old kids produce utility bills. INSANE!
So much for encouraging savings and financial management.
OK, I get that if someone is opening a new account then it may be a good idea to get urine samples so that they know your customer (KYC). (That's a joke, but who knows where it could end up. We may soon to have to provide DNA testing to open up a fixed deposit).
I get KYC, but was it the intent to KNOW ME every single time I open an account at the same branch. How many times do I have to provide a copy of my passport, NIB and utility bill to the same institution?
But it is not their fault. It is ours because we take it. Let's start a quite revolt. Let's all take out new accounts and give them utility bills and then move. LOL. It's so ridiculous all I can do to remain sane is to be facetious.
There are two assumptions:
1. That it is not the policy to have to repeatedly provide information to a bank you have been doing business with for decades but that the clerks are in such fear of their compliance departments that they dare not tick every box.
2. That it IS the policy that every time the same customer opens a new account he or she must make themselves known to the bank again, because the bank likes multiple copies of your passport picture, NIB card and utility bills. Or maybe the clerk you are sitting in front of to open up a new account forgot that you are the same person that made deposits in another account the day before. Or maybe, due to cutbacks, the bank's computers have limited memory and cannot store documents from previous accounts.
Enough is enough. On behalf of the Bahamian people, I am asking the governor of the Central Bank to immediately issue an executive order advising banks that, if a customer holds an account in an institution, that previous records of that person's passport, NIB card and utility bill will suffice. That way, when we walk into a bank where we already have an account, we can bring a copy of the order to present to any clerk in fear of their compliance officer. And that way we can say, "See, Wendy says I don't have to provide that stuff again".
I leave you with this: I once tried to open an account at a bank where I had a mortgage. They wanted proof of where I lived. I tried to tell them it was the same place where they lent me the money for. It did not work.
I would never have imagined that we would have to fight this hard to put money in a bank where the fees that they charge are higher than the interest they pay.
We, the people, are the idiots, not the banks. We are their source of entertainment.
- Ed Fields

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