Republic Bank customers have expressed outrage at the way money was suddenly taken out of their accounts recently, and Deputy Premier Lorna Smith told the Beacon yesterday that she is awaiting a report on the situation from the Financial Services Commission.
Customers flooded social media with complaints about how the bank had removed money with scant warning for transactions they thought had been settled up to two years ago.
Business owner Nigel Keegan, head of the gourmet food company Grape Expectations, said it was high time the FSC got involved.
“Transactions just came out as a lump sum, and I knew it was old transactions as the dates said they were over two years old,” Mr. Keegan told the Beacon. “But this kind of thing happens regularly.”
He added that his company has suffered problems because of the situation.
“It’s impacted my business detrimentally because I’ve not been able to pay suppliers in a timely fashion a number of times because the bank has failed to allow us access to money,” Mr. Keegan said.
He added that he had complained to watchdogs, but nothing happened.
“The FSC needs to step in and look at what’s happening, because this is affecting a lot of people,” he said. “They have told me, ‘Just talk to the bank,’ but I’m just an individual. This is a job for regulators.”
Facebook complaints
Other customers aired similar frustrations on social media. Tasia Veenkamp took to Facebook on April 30 to express anger at how her family had been treated.
“The bank pulled $2,283.67 from our account yesterday in ‘delayed’ charges dating back to two years ago,” she wrote. “There were no pending transactions and only an email was sent on Saturday midmorning that the charges were going to come out Monday. Obviously, no one works on a Saturday, so couldn’t call to ask [what had happened].”
Ms. Veenkamp suggested that the bank was operating with double standards.
“How is this our fault? If we as customers only have 90 days to dispute fraudulent charges, they should have a timeframe as well,” she wrote. “If I held onto a cheque for more than six months, I can’t cash it. How can they re-charge me for something they screwed up on almost two years ago?”
In the same Facebook thread, Ellie Daut expressed puzzlement at the bank’s actions.
“Same thing happened to me today, 2,000 gone,” she wrote. “If they never charged my account back in 2022, why wouldn’t merchants reach out to me by now? Surely I wouldn’t be able to check out of the hotel if I never paid for it.”
Lorraine Clancy claimed this was not the first time the bank operated in such a manner.
“Happened to me with them in February for transactions from last year!” she wrote. “Disgusting way to do business.”
No response
Republic Bank did not respond to a request for comment, but it apologised to customers in a May 2 statement that provided few specific details about what went wrong.
“Republic Bank confirms that, as a result of a technical issue stemming from our conversion exercise, some of our customers’ accounts were not debited in a timely manner for point of sale and e-commerce transactions,” the statement explained. “Against this background, the bank went through a thorough verification exercise, which involved careful identification of customers transactions.”
The “volume of the traffic” involved in this task required the bank to “meticulously validate” the transactions in question and communicate personally with each affected customer, the bank added.
“We understand the concern this has caused and we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience,” the statement noted. “We are prepared to continue working closely with our customers to resolve their concerns in a satisfactory and timely manner, including providing an option for payment plans to assist them during this time.”
Investigation
Ms. Smith, who is also financial services minister, said yesterday that the matter was being investigated.
“Of course, I am concerned and awaiting a report from the FSC,” she told the Beacon yesterday.
The FSC did not respond to a request for comment by press time yesterday afternoon.