CHECK YOUR ACCOUNT!

Sep 27, 2008 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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When I first began my working career, a clerk in the civil service was more highly recognized than a teller in a bank.

And that was one of the main reasons why despite applying for a job in one of the foreign-owned banks, I opted to take up employment in the government service rather than go into banking.

Even in those days it was not easy to get employment in a bank. Even with the right connections – and let us not fool ourselves, connections did matter in those days as well – it was not automatic that an academically qualified job-seeker would find favour with the banks because the banks were very circumspect in who they employed.

The banks then were not trivial when it came to confidentiality and as such they went to great pains to ensure that their employees could be trusted not to reveal even the minutest of details of any transaction within the bank.

They also paid keen attention to attitude. You had to be well-mannered, refined and of quiet and calm deportment before you would be taken on as an employee. If you were one of those loud-mouthed uncouth persons then your chances of gaining employment were slender.

Banks also looked at your personal grooming. No one sporting a hairstyle like Uncle Freddie would have any chance at succeeding at a job interview where how well cropped your hair was and how appropriately dressed mattered.

Appearance on the teller line is perhaps the most important factor contributing to the image of the service offered by banks and no scraggy-haired person would be allowed to stand behind a teller wicket.
Of high importance was the background of the applicant.

Because the banks were dealing with other people’s money, they did thorough background checks on prospective employees. Often they would send around scouts to find out about an individual because they took no chances with those entrusted to work in their branches.

Today, banks are having all manner of problems with their reputation. I do not know whether this is because banks are dropping their guards in terms of the stringency in background checks on their employees. I do not know whether it because the fraudsters have become more adept.

I know there have always been frauds within banks but these days they are all too frequent and they are all pointing in the wrong direction. Too many, just too many, of the frauds are suspected to involve inside collusion.

To add to this there is a strong belief in society that criminal networks have been able to access critical information on customers’ transactions and thus able to lay in wait for them when they exit the bank.

Security is also a problem. During the 2006 heist at two banks in Berbice, the criminals obviously knew exactly where the security cameras were stored and what they needed to do to disable the system.

In another fraud, someone was able to tamper with an ATM machine because he or she knew certain codes. Now we are having an unusual number of cases involving the tampering of customers’ accounts.

A man who deposited a large sum into a fixed deposit at one bank, turned up recently to withdraw some of his funds only to be told that instead of there being money in his fixed deposit, he had actually owed the bank since a loan was taken out in his name exceeding the money he had deposited.

The man may never have known about the developments in his account had the financial crisis not hit America. It was because of this crisis that the man decided to make an inquiry to ensure that his money was safe in Guyana.

Given all that is taking place locally and globally, every person with a bankbook or a fixed deposit needs to regularly check to ascertain the status of his or her account. The details of all accounts need to be verified so as to ensure there has been no fraud.

This is something everyone should do, because in these times no matter how much confidence you may have in your bank, there are persons out there in society who may have some designs on defrauding a bank and, who knows, the account that they may go after could very well be yours.

So visit your bank and find out just what is taking place so as satisfy yourself that everything is in order. There is no harm in checking. Kaieteur News has to do a different kind of checking with one local bank.

This newspaper has to check its advertising account because it would seem that for some weeks now one of the banks who regularly advertized with this newspaper has not been doing so but has been placing ads in the hard times newspaper.

I suppose there must be an explanation and we will find out in due course just why we have not been receiving ads from a client that has always advertized in the Kaieteur News. Who knows what the answer will be for this anomaly!

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