The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) will get new consumer protection powers when sub-regional Governments take Banking Act amendments to their parliaments.
The highest decision-making authority of the ECCB, the Monetary Council, has approved the measure.
“We got the approval of Monetary Council in July, July 19, for an amendment of the banking act to give us powers with respect to consumer protection – powers that we do not now have,” ECCB Governor Timothy N. J. Antoine recalled.
“Those amendments will be tabled in our parliament soon, we hope, and passed,” he explained.
Antoine spoke to DBS Television’s Lissa Joseph last week.
He commented after indicating that the ECCB was awaiting an independent audit report regarding a situation at Republic Bank (EC) Limited.
Earlier this year, flabbergasted Republic Bank customers learned of delays in processing their E-Commerce and point-of-sale transactions on their accounts.
In some instances, the delays resulted in deductions from their accounts over a year later.
One angry customer at the time said he discovered during a debit card transaction at a local business establishment that his account had no funds.
Reports indicated that delayed transactions impacted over twelve thousand Republic Bank customers across five Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) countries, including Saint Lucia.
“It caught all of us by surprise, myself included, because I also was one of the customers impacted by this situation,” ECCB Governor Antoine explained during his DBS television appearance.
He disclosed that the situation also impacted ECCB staff.
Antoine described the Republic Bank situation as ‘very disappointing’ and ‘unacceptable’.
He explained that under the law, the ECCB commissioned the independent audit, and once the institution received a report, the Bank would determine what additional steps were required.
“We did what we could. Some wanted us to do more. We could not do what the law did not allow us to do. We were already planning to do that. The Republic situation, I think, just motivated us to move even faster with what we were already planning to do,” the ECCB Governor stated.
In this regard, Antoine declared that once parliaments in ECCU member states pass the proposed Banking Act amendments, the ECCB would be able to deal more effectively with ‘these things.’
