Guyana’s banking system is stuck in the dark ages

I am convinced that commercial banking in Guyana is stuck in the dark ages and with it our financial architecture. Commercial banks are aligned and conspire to create some of the most oppressive financial situations that disproportionately affect poor and working class people.

Let’s start with their opening hours. Commercial banks in Guyana have closed their doors between 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM since the 1960s. Fast forward to today. With all the technological and financial advancements in the world, coupled with Guyana’s changed commercial climate, commercial banks still close their doors at 2 p.m. This is the textbook definition of being stuck in the Dark Ages.

Then their audit policy. Firstly, why is the payment facility still solely paper-based, when the only way to make money is by physically queuing? This payment method was popular in 15th century Europe. Although the system has changed around the world, it is still implemented in Guyana in the same way as it was in the year 1501; talk about dark times!

Furthermore, Guyana’s commercial banks have a cooperative rule that interbank deposited checks above $500,000 go through a process called “Special Clearance” where the transaction is expedited and the recipient can access the funds on the same business day. All checks with a value under $500,000 must wait three business days. The concept of waiting three working days also existed before the 1960s. Guyana’s commercial banks, even after more than three generations, cannot find a way to modernize this service.

If you’re dealing a pittance of $30,000 as agreed, you’ll have to wait, but those are the people who most need access to their money to turn it into a “small” side hustle or to meet urgent needs.
Next we come to Guyana’s ATM culture, by far the worst in the world. I have never seen so many non-functioning ATMs as in Guyana. Republic Bank Ltd (RBL) is the main culprit. Let me share my experience from the past week.

The nearest RBL ATM to where I live is the RUBIS petrol station on Mandela Avenue. On Wednesday, October 23, 2024, around 8:30 a.m., the ATM read ‘machine defective’, an indication that there was no cash in the machine. The dispenser was also on Wren Avenue.
On a visit to Camp Street, there was a line of no fewer than 200 people snaking onto the sidewalk on the lower platform.

The option was taken to skip the long line and go to New Market Street. After queuing behind 20 people for a significant period of time with only one of the three ATMs functioning, I came in third place, the last machine stopped functioning. Around 9:45 a.m., people walking around to see if the machines would come back online soon started grumbling and complaining.

The security guard came with an orange emergency cone and said that the ATMs are all out of cash and won’t be restocked until sometime around noon. She further indicated that she had been instructed to place a cone and close the gates.
The next step was to an ATM in the parking lot of the Pegasus Suites, the story was no different. Another customer said he had just come out of an ATM in Movie Towne and stopped at another ATM on Alexander Street, Kitty, and they all had the same problem. At that point it was time to call off the chase.

The next day around said time the same rounds were made with similar results, except this time there was cash at Pegasus.
There was drama on Thursday. While at the New Market Street location, a male taxi driver used loud swear words in his verbal tirade at a young lady and berated her for his money. The woman explained that she is a teacher, she didn’t have a cent, she usually takes the bus to school, but without the bus ticket she was forced to take a taxi to the nearest ATM, not within walking distance, where she’ I paid for it and continue her journey by bus. That machine was broken, so she was now stuck with a taxi she didn’t want to go on.

After unsuccessfully trying another ATM, she ended up on New Market Street, which also had no money. The taxi driver became furious because he couldn’t believe that in this day and age such an ATM saga is even possible; he thought he was being fooled. A good young man understood her plight and paid for the taxi and gave her a ‘top-up’.

This kind of intimidation and shaming is reserved for the poor and working class. I don’t believe the banking industry, especially RBL, even has an appetite to improve its services to reduce dependence on cash or make smaller cash transactions as painless as possible. RBL is the largest bank in Guyana in terms of number of accounts, total deposits and total assets.

It must therefore be the trendsetter for new and revolutionary services. RBL has the capacity, more than any single entity in Guyana, to employ and manage staff, either on a staggered basis or overtime, to maintain and replenish ATMs, even at ungodly hours of the night. They need years of ATM data to show trends that will help them plan appropriate actions.

The oppression of the poor through its services is not an issue that RBL, and by extension other commercial banks, cannot solve, nor is it an issue that they do not know better about. I believe they run a mafia-like banking cartel that ‘oppresses’ the poor by design.
We know RBL knows best. RBL, headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago, has been part of the LINX payment system since 1995, where an ATM card from one commercial bank can transact at any other member bank as if it were being used at the home bank.

If this was possible in Trinidad almost 30 years ago, why isn’t it possible here? There is more to be gained from liberating our local financial systems and interbank correspondence, but even a profit motive does not lead to improvement. I believe there is a collective corporate mentality that plagues bank executives in Guyana, a mentality that has been passed down from colonial times.

Culture has so gripped the industry that even executives drawn from liberated banking systems abroad are unable to break the chains of cognitive dissonance, in a system where the plight of the poor and working class does not rise to the level that requires special attention. policies to alleviate their suffering, not even the potential for greater profits.

I believe that banks should be forced by law to improve these most basic services. Banks should be instructed to have ATMs in proportion to the number of accounts held, for example for every 300 customers there should be at least 1 ATM. Minimum conditions must also be met for the installation and distribution of ATMs, depending on the concentration of account holders to addresses. Upon reaching a certain quota, an ATM must be established in that district or sub-district. There should also be rules on the length of time an ATM can remain cashless or in disrepair.

ATMs of the kind used in Guyana are almost ancient and today poor service and maintenance of ATMs is a non-negotiable. The very banking system that has made the country so dependent on cash has created long lines for every conceivable transaction. Due to lack of space, I have to limit my column to these three areas. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to repressive banking practices in Guyana.

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.