THESE are definitely not the best of times for the nation’s financial institutions. With some yet to recover from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s imposed reforms, and others coming up with different means of shoring up their capital base, the landscape, many believe, is still far from being sane.

As part of efforts aimed at improving customer relations and staying afloat of the turbulence in the sector, many banks are swiftly moving to offer various electronic payment platforms. Though adjudged to be very convenient for the consumer, electronic payment has been found not to be without its challenges too.

Interestingly, some of the nation’s financial institutions, Banking Watch discovered, have been using this payment platform to short-change their customers.

Olusoga Bunmi, a customer of the GTBank, who had fallen a victim of such short-changing, would never forget her experience in a hurry.
Narrating her ordeal to Banking Watch recently, she had gone to the ATM at the Akowonjo branch of the her bank (GTBank), on November 19, 2011, around 6.30pm, to collect some money to meet some urgent needs.

After successfully completing the transaction, she discovered the machine would not eject her card, despite being instructed to do so. The security guard on duty was promptly informed about the development and she was advised to lodge her complaint the following day with bank.

She received the greatest shock of her life when the staffer she met at the customer service desk of the bank, the following day, told her she could only apply for a new one because the machine had blocked her ATM card.

In her words she said,  “when I got to the bank the next day, I lodged my complaints with the customer service officer who asked me to part with N1,000 to apply for a new card. I demanded to know what happened to my card, since I know how the system works, being a former banker myself. She only told me the machine blocked the card automatically to prevent fraud. So I paid the N1,000 for a new one, but I suspect a foul play because that should not be the process.”

Her brief interactions with the customer service desk of the bank, she continued, revealed that she was not alone.

“I discovered many of the bank’s customers had suffered this same fate at one time or the other. They are being made to part with the sum of N1,000 each time they have issues with their ATM card, even when the fault is not theirs,” she stated.

An investigation at the corporate communications department at the head office of the bank confirmed this, adding that the directive that any card seized by the machine should be withdrawn is that of the management.

“It is the management’s decision to withdraw cards seized by the ATM to prevent fraudsters from gaining access to the information on the card. It is also applicable to other banks,” stated a source at the  bank’s corporate communications department.

On allegation that the bank intends to increase its marginal revenue through this compulsory payment of N1,000, she said it is in line with Interswitch charges for new cards.

However, a source within the bank who pleaded anonymity, authoritatively informed Banking Watch that the bank had actually issued a directive to that effect around November, last year, though there are spelt-out procedures that should have been followed.

“The customer service officer should have confirmed whether the fault was from the ATM or the customer. There is a journal which details all transactions on the ATM from which we can get the information. If it is the machine error, the customer is not liable to pay, but if it is the customer’s fault, then he will pay the mandatory N1,000. Since the card is in our custody, we block it manually and it is not the machine that blocks it. A staffer can use his discretion to remove the card from the ATM and give it to the customer without informing the management,” she stated.

“Curiously, this is not usually gone through before the burden of paying for the card is passed on to the bank’s customers,” she added.

Reacting to the development, a banker, Mr. Biyi Adesuyi, argued that though banks put up some measures aimed at safeguarding the ATM card users from fraud, he added that they must not continue to use this to exploit their customers.

“This is a clear case of short-change, since it is very obvious that the mistake, in this case, was that of the bank. The customer had already completed her transaction. The money was already collected, what remained was the card to come out. And I believe it is wrong to ask this customer to pay for the bank’s inefficiency,” he noted.