Latest update September 15th, 2026 10:20 AM
Unpleasant treatment at two city banks
Dear Editor,
My visits to the banks in Guyana were very frustrating experiences. Last week I visited two banks on Water Street. First it was the GBTI bank. I reached there about noon.
There were only about twelve persons in the line but only two employees were working. Just to cash a cheque, I took over one hour. I counted nine booths but only two tellers were working. The supervisors just put a blind eye to what was happening. Many staff members were just walking around doing nothing and gaffing all the time. If all the nine booths were occupied, I would have left there in less than ten minutes.
I then walked over to Republic Bank to be greeted with a longer line of about sixty people. It was around 1:30 in the afternoon. I joined the line that was not moving. It was very hot and no one cared if the line was like a stagnant trench full of bushes. I counted eighteen booths but only six staff were working; it seems the others were on a long lunch but the supervisors do not care to fill those empty booths with many other staff I see just walking around and gaffing. The six staff were working for the twelve that were gone to a very long lunch.
All of this incompetence I see at all these major banks in Guyana is caused by very poor administration. The CEO and Managers have no respect for our Guyanese citizens who have to stand for hours in these lines. They need to be fired.
After two hours, I approached the teller with my filled out documents. She told me I need to bring my passport, tin certificate and an expense invoice I can make out myself and she gave me instructions how to make it out. I was a bit bothered because I gave them those things not too long ago, only the expense invoice was new to me that pertains to the amount of money I earned with my income and expenditure. I finished my transaction and returned the next day with the documents they required to be greeted with the same long slow-moving line.
That process alone took an extra hour with many questions I have to answer. I told the staff that they should have called or write to me requesting those documents long before and not wait until I reached there to be greeted by a ‘’steel wall.’’ I was told they are updating all customers’ accounts because of the money laundering bill. I have been hearing that foolishness a very long time so I now call on the Minister of Legal affairs to make the stipulations of this bill public when it comes to these banks by having a brochure given to all citizens of this country. My questions are as follows:
Why do the banks need 2 forms of Identifications? Why they need the following things all the time: proof of address, Tin Certificate, job letter or affidavits, picture, etc, etc.? Why the GECOM ID alone doesn’t work? It seems they don’t trust the ID from GECOM and they don’t accept a driver’s license as a form of ID.Why these banks cannot write their customers? Email them, or send letters, publish on television or papers of their new requirements? Why wait until customers travel from very far to lose a day’s work for a few documents? What does it say in the Anti-Money Laundering about customers’ requirements for banking?
To get a passport I will need a good birth certificate and my GECOM ID card. Then I will take those to the immigration with my notarized passport form for a passport. So why the banks just can’t accept the GECOM ID? The Passport Office’s lines get longer daily because everyone wants to leave here since this new administration. It’s the hard truth we must accept. We have a serious migration problem in this country all because of poor wages and salary and bad administration for the past fifty years. Our economy is at a standstill. This doesn’t bother our political leaders.
My next question for the banks: Why does no bank in Guyana have toilets and urinals?
You wait for hours in lines but there are no wash rooms for their customers. It’s so sad. I fully agree with Mr Kissoon when he asked why is Guyana such a stupid place? We waste hours and days in long lines for just simple things like a passport, birth certificate, and a bank deposit. We are a nation far behind civilization where the half educated have risen to power into many offices they are not qualified to administrate. May God help us!
Rev.Gideon Cecil
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This letter writer is being too polite — the arrogance of republic bank ( a foreign entity) is criminal.
THE UNPRODUCTIVE MAN-HOURS LOST WAITING IN LINE AT BANKS WARRANTS THE ATTENTION OF THE MINISTER OF FINANCE … ID RATHER DO CHARITY WORK THAN WAIT TO BE ATTEND FOR MY OWN MONIES.