The Minister of Finance’s revealing remarks on commercial banks

LAST Tuesday, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh urged commercial banks to adhere to the Central Bank’s requirements for opening small accounts by people who are not high earners. This exhortation was not made by an ordinary person or even by someone with some state authority. It was authored by one of Guyana’s most senior citizens – the Minister of Finance – whose portfolio covers Guyana’s financial institutions.

I now tell readers about my understanding of how state power is exercised in any country in the world. I built a house in Turkeyen after moving from Wortmanville, south of Georgetown. One day the contractor called me to ask me to come down because a council officer had delayed the work.

The officer told me the building must be ten feet from the fence. This was not the case. The contractor had made a mistake. What’s the point? Laws, legal requirements and state decrees must be accepted and citizens are obliged to comply with them due to the surveillance of state authorities.

Bank of Guyana (BoG) regulations, if they exist, must be complied with by commercial banks. Anyone who lives in Guyana and has had to enter into a deal with any bank, and I mean any commercial bank, will tell you, these banks are a law unto themselves. The Central Bank needs to exercise oversight and I fear that after over ten years of complaints to the Governor, Dr. Gobin Ganga, I am not seeing that oversight.

Dr. Ganga will admit that I complained to him for 10 years about the utter unreasonableness of commercial banks. I have email exchanges with him that I have kept ever since. Dr. Ganga is someone I know personally, but he knows how I feel about the mistreatment of workers by the banks and the silence of the BoG.

Let us quote the Minister of Finance. I remind you that this is one of the most powerful state officials speaking. “It seems to me that this simplified directive is not very well known… Guyanese should not experience long waiting times to open an account in Guyana unlike other countries because they all work with the same anti-money laundering money and the financing of terrorism. (AMLCFT).

This is one of Guyana’s current mysteries that all Guyanese know, even those who have no adverse experience dealing with banks. All countries must adhere to international anti-money laundering law. So why does it take “a million years” to open an account and why do we have to produce “a million documents” and answer “a million questions” in Guyana alone?

A Trinidadian man made a noise in one of the banks. He kept shouting to attendees that Trinidad was the first CARICOM country to implement the anti-money laundering law, but Trinidadians do not face the hassles that Guyanese face. He was angry and he had to calm him down. I witnessed this explosion.

Let us quote the Minister of Finance again: “Sometimes, these simplified directives do not always “reflect” on the staff of bank counters. » So, what about the required staff training? This means that either the banks are incompetent, or they don’t care, or they don’t train their staff.” Staff training is common sense in today’s world.

All major institutions frequently organize staff training. I was at a popular fast food restaurant and had to wait because the workout went over the allotted time. I was in one of the better known supermarkets and asked to speak to the supervisor. They told me he was in training. So banks don’t train their staff? Agents must be familiar with bank regulations. How else could they serve the public?

Here is a graphic example where staff are trained to understand what they need to do. No police officer would arrest a tenant if the landlord goes to the police station and complains about the rent owed. The police officer at the office would immediately tell him that the police cannot arrest the tenant and that he must pursue the tenant. The officer at the office knows that such a complaint does not fall within the jurisdiction of the police.

If the bank employee does not know the regulations, then the bank must organize training sessions.
The last quote above from the Minister of Finance should open our eyes to the way banks operate in this country.

Banks’ ignorance of the provisions of the anti-money laundering law is creating nightmares for the Guyanese working class. This cruelty must stop.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Guyana National Newspapers Limited.