Customers ‘blacklist’ nine banks

Services provided by Ghanaian banks have continued to deteriorate with increasing acts of misdemeanor by personnel responsible for managing such financial institutions.

While the services are becoming more horrible by the day, bank executives and staff keep appropriating to themselves huge salaries, bonuses and other benefits.

Commercial banks noted for rendering the aforementioned epileptic services include SG-SSB, Access Bank, Ecobank, Fidelity Bank, Ghana Commercial Bank, Agricultural Development Bank and Barclays Bank. Some customers are therefore calling on the regulatory authorities to better enforce consumer protection laws.

Customers are complaining over poor services and sky-rocketing charges as a result of the inefficiency of the management of the named banks, Economy Times reports.

Currently, bank customers are often compelled to use counter cheques for withdrawals, at an extra cost of GH¢5 per leaflet if they forget their cheque books or the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) are not working (a frequent situation at most banks nowadays).

Furthermore, customers are complaining of late crediting of their accounts due to alleged late presentation of cheques.

Zakaria Yacobu, a customer of Access Bank, headquartered in Nigeria, said “It is difficult to withdraw from the bank. Sometimes it costs us extra money and energy coming back to the bank, to withdraw or to collect cheque books.”

James Mensah, an employee with an oil and gas company, said he withdrew all his money from Ecobank because the transaction charges of the bank were so high.

“The services rendered to customers at Ecobank nowadays are poorer than the one being rendered at Ghana Commercial Bank,” Mr Mensah stated.

He further said he had to withdraw all his money from another bank, Zenith Bank, because of illegal charges on cost of transaction.

Another customer with Unibank Ghana Limited, who would not give his name, complained that his first experience after using the ATM discouraged him, adding, “I have an ATM card but I have since stopped using it because of the experience that I had.

“The machine was showing me that I had collected money, when I had not. After filling-in a form of complaints at the bank, they waited for days before they could pay me back my money,” she stated.

As at press time last Friday, UniBank had sent the following SMS to its customers:

Dear customers, please be informed that we are performing routine maintenance on our systems, which has affected our service delivery. Strenuous efforts are being made to restore normal services as soon as possible. Subsequently, in view of the routine maintenance, we would be closed to the public on Saturday July 7, 2012. We wish to apologise to all for any inconvenience we may have caused you. UniBank, Caring for you.”

Another customer, Celestine Amoah said “I was in ADB Adabraka branch to withdraw money, and to my surprise, I was told they had run out of cash and I had to wait for over two hours before I was sorted out. At another time, I was told the network was down. They are not investing in the right IT infrastructure.”

“Another bank that is not serious is Barclays Ghana. They always over promise and under deliver. Most of the workers are rude to customers,” Ms Amoah stated.

To further safeguard the interest of the consumers, Israel Dzokoto, Chief Executive Officer of AMI International Consult, said government would have to do much more.

“It is imperative to enact the appropriate pieces of legislation and promote efficient judicial systems, with a view to promoting robust consumer protection and safeguard financial institutions against unscrupulous customers,” the CEO of the research entity said.

“Such an arrangement should be with a view to sanitising the system and putting in check the excessive and unscrupulous charges by a few banks. Customers should have places to run to for succor when they believe they have been unfairly treated or charged,” he stated.

Last week, the chastened former head of Barclays International apologised for the “reprehensible” behaviour of his traders who fixed interest rates, but told British lawmakers his bank had been unfairly singled out after coming forward to admit wrongdoing.

Bob Diamond, 60, quit last week after Barclays agreed to pay nearly half a billion dollars in fines for manipulating the interest rates at the heart of the global financial system.

British politicians have seized on the case as a symbol of a culture of greed that has poisoned the entire financial industry. Newspapers have highlighted e-mails disclosed in the case which show traders congratulating each other for fiddling figures with promises of champagne.

Appearing thoughtful and humble before a parliamentary committee, the man, who until last Tuesday, was one of the world’s highest paid and most powerful financial executives with an aggressive reputation, acknowledged “inexcusable” behaviour among his group’s traders.

“When I read the e-mails from those traders, I got physically ill,” Diamond said. “That behaviour was reprehensible, it was wrong. I am sorry, I am disappointed and I am also angry.”

He said those involved in rigging interest rates would be subject to criminal investigation and should be “dealt with harshly.”

The wrongdoing was “not representative of the firm that I love so much,” the American banker said. But he also insisted that Barclays was being made a scapegoat because it had cooperated with the authorities to help unearth the misdeeds.