By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
CONSUMERS may be "delaying the inevitable" by moving from Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) to escape a digital banking drive that has attracted 60,000 persons to its mobile app.
Kevin Darling, RBC's head of business banking for the northern Caribbean, acknowledged that the bank's digitisation push would likely drive some clients to other institutions.He argued, though, that they were merely delaying the inevitable since other banks were likely on the same path. "I think the move to digital is inevitable," Mr Darling said.
"Change is often uneasy for a lot of people. We are going to work with all of our clients and ensure they can fit into the digital environment.
"There will be some that want to try and do business elsewhere. I think people may be delaying the inevitable by doing that because I think our whole industry may be heading down this road."
RBC is this month implementing several changes in a bid to improve customer service, efficiency and security, and reduce long in-branch waiting times and queues, by driving clients to Internet and mobile banking.
Deposits and transfers to other RBC clients' accounts, with the exception of FINCO clients, have not been accepted since January 2.
The 'fast deposit' service will no longer be available from January 15 and, as of January 31, wire transfers will not be processed over-the-counter and standing orders for credit card payments will be discontinued.
Instead, the bank has advised customers to use its ATMs (Automatic Teller Machines) to deposit cash or cheques, and employ its mobile app to pay bills, credit cards, transfer funds, send wire transfers, check credit card balances and make payments to other RBC clients.
Mr Darling said the number of persons now using RBC's mobile app "in the 60,000 range". RBC has also announced it is ending certain services for non-clients. This includes cheque cashing, bill payments, taking deposits or exchanging foreign currency.
Comments
proudloudandfnm 6 years, 3 months ago
This may be true but fact is RBC has the LEAST reliable teller machines in the country. So by all means go find another bank. I definitely am...
bogart 6 years, 3 months ago
While the RBCOfficial has earned a senior position as the northern head and views this mobile app as inevitable he must bear in mind that many a big company even bigger than RBC had made many disastrastrous drcisions like Coke, GM etc which thought their change was the future for that market was inevitable At this point to use the ATMs to deposit cash needs to be assessed in light of our Money laundering, Know your Customer laws etc because I yet to see a RBC Atm assess a customer depositing any sispicious funds that a teller can ask and looking at various screens to question or flag or compare history of yhe account. to follow the law. Obviously, the northern managrr must know of some secret way of abiding by legal Bahamian regulations to have the machine get the job done to save us from another round of blacklisting. Deposit in the Atm and use App to transfer, wire funds. Looks great for depositing cocaine sales money and wiring it to outside country definately is progress from other illegal methods...now if only we can get an App to protect depositors and speed up that ATM line.
sheeprunner12 6 years, 3 months ago
Soooooooo, when RBC begins to withdraw its Out Island branches AND its ATMs????? ........ and are telling the clients that they will be out of the country in 24 months, watsayu??????? ..... smh
hallmark 6 years, 3 months ago
Bunch of crap. They say you can only have ONE ATM CARD for all of the accounts your name is on (I am on my mother's account and my children's accounts). But when you go to get all of the accounts attached to the ONE card, they say you can only attach two savings account (one of which is your own personal account) and one checking account. So how do I access the other savings/checking accounts that my name is on? Will I get separate ATM cards for those? NO!! So what do I do? The Teller could not tell me!
bogart 6 years, 3 months ago
Banks are not perfect. For too long we have been conditioned into thinking persons dressed in what we would consider Church attire, suits etc and sitting in fancy offices located in buildings with fancy carpets and furnishings.....must have your best interest at heart. Newsflash, its part of the show that the pristine image is part psychological. Its the Pratfall effect where people tend to believe well dressed people even though they are lying through their teet!! Many times bankers are caught in jailable crimes BUT to preserve this perfect image many crimes are not publictly repprted and hidden at all costs with secret deals to repay and keep crimes hidden
Regretably too many of us Bahamians hold on to this polished view for other reasons. Thankfully recent crimes like the BPL million dollar alleged crimes have seen bankers charged with crimes.
Investigations are needed by independent agancies looking out for the customers like the UK Finamcial Conduct Authority and US Comsumer Financial Protection Bureau , Truth in LendingAct etc, to investigate and audit banks, credit unions, securities firms, payday lenders, mortgage servicing operations, foreclodure relief services, debt collectors, web shops and others.
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