The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

In honour of the memory of Arthur Hanna (among so many other good things, a smart and nationalist Minister of Finance) the incoming PLP government should dissolve the recently established Credit Bureau and repeal the legislation upon which it stands. It has no utility whatsoever to the Bahamian consumer and only serves the interests of the (mostly foreign) commercial banks, herding Bahamians into convenient categories to be better exploited.

As I pointed out in an earlier letter, there is, in the Bahamian context, no justification for this gift to an abusive banking industry and its advent is yet another example of outside interests playing on the inferiority complex of local officials and politicians and convincing them of the merits of copying other countries for its own sake.

Perhaps the second order of business regarding the banking industry would be to immediately advise all foreign commercial banks that, as their presence here is a prima facie affront to the policy of Bahamianisation, government is strongly considering revoking their licenses and granting them to interested Bahamian entities (including local gaming companies).

They should therefore govern themselves with this in mind when they next review their anti-consumer rules and practices – like forcing people to open accounts with them in order to negotiate cheques drawn on their clients’ accounts and refusing “third party deposits”, thus forcing Bahamians (including the elderly) to wait in long bank lines to make deposits in person to their own accounts.

You may be shocked what effect a little such “encouragement” would have on these people – or even better, maybe they’ll just leave.

ANDREW ALLEN

Nassau,

August 15, 2021.