EDITOR, The Tribune.
I am the father of a 28-year-old Bahamian professional. My daughter and her husband recently applied for a mortgage at one of the commercial banks, even though they qualified they were informed that the bank was unable to give them the mortgage because the lot they were purchasing was in a subdivision owned by one of the Gaming Companies.
I thought that the House of Assembly passed legislation which legalised the local Gaming Industry.
Why is it that some banks are still not accepting the Gaming Industry as a legitimate form of business which they now are.
Given the weak state of our economy and the recent bad news that Scotia Bank is closing two branches and consolidating four resulting in the loss of employment for 50 Bahamians, one would have thought that all banks, including Scotia would be welcoming more business, especially from the Gaming Industry.
I am told that the Gaming Houses have all expanded their businesses into other areas of the economy and that if all the local commercial banks accept their business then the result would be more jobs for Bahamians and more business for the banks which will result in more jobs as opposed to less jobs.
In my daughter’s case, who wants to purchase a home in a gated community, an approved mortgage will result in work for lawyers, architects, engineers, construction firms and workers, landscapers, hardware and building stores and more revenue for the bank and for the Government.
I congratulate Bank of The Bahamas for accepting the Gaming Houses as customers and I hope all banks will follow their lead.
CONCERNED PARENT
Nassau,
March 31, 2015.
Comments
Sickened 9 years ago
Dear Concerned parent. Respectable banks cannot in good conscience accept ill-gotten gains from criminals (i.e. the illegal and still unlicensed gaming industry). Your daughter needs to go to BoB for her loan because it is a government run bank which accepts money from anyone and will lend money to anyone because they have so much of it. The benefit for your daughter is that she won't have to pay on her loan because the bank doesn't have any checks and balances in place and will probably never realize that they have leant her any money. If one day the bank inspectors happen to notice her mortgage has never been paid then she just has to show her PLP or FNM card (depending on who's in power at the time) and her mortgage file will be filed away again.
afficianado 9 years ago
Scotiabank and the other Canadian banks have integrity and an international standard that they must uphold.
sansoucireader 9 years ago
BoB was kicked out of Florida a few years ago because it was suspected of 'doin' foolishness'. Canadian and other international banks have higher-ups to answer to, For them to willingly accept tainted and suspicious funds (from web shop etc.) can throw the entire worldwide banking system into chaos; people really need to realize this.
ohdrap4 9 years ago
There is name for that. it is called money laundering.
People who purchase homes in these subdivisions are assisting with the money laundering.
In a worst case scenario, the properties could be seized or the developer could never finish them because they can't find 400 people to purchase them.
banker 9 years ago
For those having trouble understanding the ramifications of banks accepting webshop money, let me explain.
With the new anti-money laundering rules, if I show up to open a bank account and I have a whole pile of money, according to world standards, I must show that I obtained that money by legitimate means. The source of my money is looked at. If I run a business that is accountable to some jurisdictional law, then that money is declared legitimate. If it is the cash takings from a business, then that business can be audited to make sure that the sales of actual merchandise reflects the amount of money being deposited. If it is from a sale, transaction or such, there must be an audit trail as to the origin of the money. This is part of KYC or Knowing Your Customer.
Web shops do not do KYC on behalf of their clients. If the mafia or a criminal element, or a PLP drug smuggler or cabinet minister stealing from his ministry, puts his money into a webshop account, the webshop owner can take his money, deduct a fee, and put it into the banking system, making the money legitimate. Webshops do not have to record or disclose the identity of depositors. Nor are they compelled to reveal the identities of the depositors to foreign law enforcement agencies making inquiries, as outlined in the various Tax Exchange Information Agreements that the Bahamas has signed with over 25 countries. Hence they are highly susceptible to criminal money being laundered. They could even be doing it unknowingly. Hence in this world full of narco-fueled terrorism, real banks won't go near tainted money.
The PLP are too stupid to understand this, and they are just paying back political debts to the webshops that financed their election wins. There is not one shred of patriotism among them, doing right for the good of the country. If they wanted to capitalised on the gambling penchant of human beings, they should have started their own national lottery, and jailed the likes of Bastien, Flowers et al. Their moral compass is so skewed that the country's legislative agenda is driven by webshop (gambling) and Nygard money (stem cell pseudo-science). Truly a country for sale, and nothing has changed since the days of Lynden Oscar Swindling.
ThisIsOurs 9 years ago
The weird thing about Nygard's stem cell therapy: no one knows what was in the hypodermic needle he shot up his arm in front of Shane Gibson et al. He said as he shot up "I can feel it already working". Cocaine, heroin and other illegal have that "I can feel it already working" immediate effect, but are the effects of a stem cell treatment felt within seconds? Just wondering. Scummy.
Well_mudda_take_sic 9 years ago
Thank you for articulating so well the Christie-led PLP government's support and promotion of money-laundering in exchange for financial contributions received from the front men of the mobsters behind the "still illegal" web shops.
ThisIsOurs 9 years ago
Scary... the gentleman thinks a piece of paper makes all that illegal money "ok". In short, his question is what is WRONG with those well established, audited, compliant banks? These dubious at best companies have real money.
MonkeeDoo 9 years ago
When the license is granted, it will make future earnings legitimate but the money on hand now is undoubtedly the proceeds of a criminal enterprise. Unless the enabling legislation allowed an amnesty on that. And it would seem that our Central Bank is going to put those same proceeds into its vaults and send the USD back to the Feds, who seemingly will take it once it is laundered through the Bahamas Central Bank. Different strokes for different folks I guess. And those poor fools out at US Customs and Border Patrol still asking "how much money you taking on your trip". The entire anti-money-laundering project is dead now.
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