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Fact 002
Facts you should know about banking in T&T

Since our inception in April 2002 , disparaging remarks have emanated from both the banking fraternity and regulators that the work of PIRG is of “someone having an axe to grind” as quoted by then Bankers Association President, Richard Young who further exclaimed, “or someone with a personal vendetta against our banks” . Very few Davids in our society have the tenacity to sacrifice personal gain to challenge the GOLIAHS to do by compulsion what they should willingly do by desire, for the overall benefit of consumer and country . Sometimes you have to be a VICTIM to lead a crusade, and PIRG Trinidad founder, Trevor Hosten is one such person who said enough rape of the Trinidad banking consumer was enough rape, and took an unprecedented approach in publicly highlighting Trinidad's banking misfeasance and malfeasances, usury, predatory, and downright discriminatory practices simply because of lax consumer protection laws and uncaring banking regulators who lent their tactic approval to banking practices way below those in civil countries.

YET , all over the world, majority consumers are realizing how banks are RIPPING them off to fatten their minority clique. Victims are exclaiming ENOUGH IS ENOUGH , demanding their governments take action. Thomas Jefferson said, “Banking establishments are more powerful and dangerous than standing armies”. US President Jimmy Carter had to pass into law how long banks can hold cheques, citing “it can mean food on the table for the poor man”, so unconscionable were they.

In addressing the 1997 anti usury conference, His Holiness Pope John Paul called USURY charges “ a serious social evil affection millions worldwide ”, and called for its total elimination.

Banks have to make money to stay in business. I get that. Every intelligent consumer gets that too. What we all don't get is why so many consumers do nothing as banks get bolder and bolder about picking their pockets . It's no longer nickel-and-diming. Consumers are now losing $10, $20 and $30 a pop as banks come up with ever-more-creative ways to "fee" us to death, and the more they realize they can actually get away with it is the more they would fleece you while appearing “Fit & Proper”.

Sometimes just shining the light of scrutiny on these policies is enough to get banks to back down. Other times, we need to protest, involve our lawmakers or even move our money elsewhere. Following PIRG'S launch attacking excessive fees, Republic Bank publicly announced “a reduction on 15 of our banking product fees”

The Trinidad banking industry collects more than TT $6 Billion a year in various service charges, more than FOURFOLD the total of a decade ago. It's time consumers pushed back. In the United States this figure is crossing the US $50 BILLION threshold much to the chagrin of consumer protection agencies and law makers.

THIS IS HOW BANKS OPERATE

BANKS have a convenient and unilateral two-faced approach. They promote free spending as a philosophy when money is abundant, and promote savings when THEIR need requires, pushing loans on you when the economy is buoyant, and foreclosing on you over these very loans if there's a national recession beyond your control. I remember buying my first Goodwood Park home in 1983 for $700,000. I called my banker to tell him about the value I was getting, and he too being impressed unhesitatingly exclaimed "so what you waiting on, come in for the money". Yet, three years later when the national economy collapsed and banks were scrambling to recover their exposure prompted exclusively by an insatiable desire for more and more profits, the very bank Manager admonished me "So why you buy a house in Goodwood Park?"

BANKS never seem to have the country's interest at heart. The IMF 1997 report on Trinidad 's economy said, “T&T's banks engage in monopolistic behavior and carry a hidden cost to the economy”. In its October 2002 highlight on abusive and usury banking practices in Trinidad , the influential TIME Magazine referred to them as ‘ PREDATORS IN PARADISE ”.

WHEN BANKS TURN EVIL

Over the last 15 years, following a destructive precedent set by an “indigenous” bank , the very customer is now the enemy if unable to pay on time to support a bank's burgeoning “profits”, callously forced into humiliating embarrassment via newspaper NAMING & SHAMING advertisements, be it their “FOR SALE BY MORTGAGEE” when the borrower's name was shamelessly BOLDED as if selling them and NOT their property, their “REQUEST TO CONTACT or “WHEREABOUTS OF” ads, and repossessed vehicles bearing the full registration or license plate. Now banks do have a right to recover their losses, BUT they can do so in a manner done in CIVIL societies without deliberately seeking to embarrass its former borrowers who, simply, can no longer contribute to their bottom line.

BANKS show little interest in financial counseling, advice, debt management or restructuring, as the greater majority of “Managers” lack the education to do so because of their one-sided interest and parochial vision, while acting as mere robots completely oblivious to creative banking. If a Trinidad bank firmly believe they can embarrass past borrowers into paying them, then something is very wrong in our society which the very banks should seek to change, first by leveling the playing fiend and embracing an EQUAL OPPORTUNITY LAW.

BANKS conduct business totally in their unilateral best interest, at times with stealth and deceit, deliberately withholding vital information from you, relying on your inertia and lack of knowledge. You are never given a copy of your contract to take to your spouse of lawyer for verification, nor are you allowed to bargain over THEIR interest rate, which is often revealed at the last minute when you are so happy the “get the loan”. They then direct you to THEIR attorneys and Insurance Companies.

BANKS often fool you into pledging your CASH as collateral to secure a loan of equal or lesser value, earning a 200 to 300% spread, and claiming “you're building good credit ratings with us”. Don't you dare fall for this CON game .

THE OXYMORONIC 'COURTESY OVERDRAFT'

Courtesy overdraft, also known as bounced-check protection, is a far cry from true overdraft protection. Some banks in Trinidad are now charging you a fee for EACH cheque they pay via an overdrawn balance, then turnaround and charge you their Monthly overdraft interest. Instead of tapping into one of your own accounts, you're borrowing the bank's money and being charged hefty fees for the privilege. What's more, banks often sign you up for this "service" without your consent, and the sneakiest ones even add the amount of the "protection" to the balance you see when you check your account at an ATM. In other words, you're being told you have more money in your account than you actually do, which can lead you to overdraw your account and create more fees for the bank.

What you can do: Call your bank and ask if you have "courtesy overdraft" or "bounced-check protection;" if so, try to get it removed from your account and replace it instead with real overdraft protection.

Trinidad BANKS in particular, often breach your CONFIDENTIALY and their Fiduciary trusts by blatantly discussing your personal affairs with third parties to feed their enlarged egos; completely uncaring of the damages or that you have a "right to know". Privileged information of pending foreclosures is given to their friends to obtain your assets at bargain prices while they malevolently sue you to recover shortfalls. One estranged business associate from San Fernando was able to tell me all my confidential activities at my Royal Bank Maraval branch account, while many kidnappings and actual murders originate from inside bank information . In the kidnapping of a real estate developer's Son, the kidnappers contacted the Victim's Father who obviously claimed he did not have the sum of money they were demanding for the unconditional release of his Son at which the kidnapper on the phone injected “ DOH TRY DAT NAH. YUH HA $17M IN ONE ACCOUNT AT X BANK”. “YUH WANT YUH SON ALIVE OR NOT”.

BUT , the landscape is beginning to change forever, thanks to PIRG . We have not been afraid to take on the banking establishment, exposing Park Street for what they truly are! More and more consumers are questioning the old “customer-for-life” routine, remembering when it was both pleasure and pride to print their bank's name on letterheads. Today, the poor, middle class, and wealthy are looking anew at their banking relationships while trust and confidence in both bank and banker is fast eroding.