Our next story is a cautionary tale from a former National Bank employee. Katrina Young - who has a master's degree in banking and finance - worked at the National Bank of Belize for two and a half years, from its inception in 2013, up until she migrated to Jamaica in 2016. And while she started as a true believer, - tonight, she has a sobering account of how - she claims - the bank got it all wrong in its record keeping - and wrongly put her - as a regular customer - in debt to the tune of thousands of dollars - while she was paying her loan to time.
For some background, Young has two loans at the bank: a student loan and a vehicle loan - and she says the bank got everything mixed up. That would have been bad enough on its own - but the confusion has ended up adding thousands of dollars to the balance outstanding on her loans, and in interest costs and late fees.
That's mainly because the bank charged her the regular commercial rate of 14% on her student loan, when it had agreed to charge her the staff rate of only 3%.
From there the confusion compounded - and after years of trying to set it right - without success - Young claims she had no choice but to come to the media.
Katrina Young, Former National Bank Employee
"For the period January 2015 to July 2015 they cannot locate six months of my payments while I was employed at the bank and that money was decocted from my salary every single month, not by me but by the finance officer at the institution. So upon querying I said if you cannot find six months of my payments just check the HR records. They should be able to have it. They cannot locate the money. So they decided to take monies that I was sending to pay for both of my loans to apply it to that one loan to make up for those six months that they cannot find. I don't think that the burden of proof should have been on me to actually show that I have a record that you don't have. So that speaks to their record keeping. I submitted the proof and they agreed to grant the staff rate. However, that came from the board level, but it was not actioned at the lower level. So my statements are still reflecting payments at the market rate instead of the rate that I was given while working at the bank."
"In addition to that, I got a recent statement where they are telling me that I owe almost $15,000 Belize dollars in arrears/interest charges and that is impossible because I've been paying my loan every month. The statements that they provide are manual statements. They are not system generated statements. So it is prone to human error. I am frustrated. This was my last resort, because I've been working with them for over three and a half years and this time I got enough and I think the Belizean public deserves to know and they should go to the bank and request a statement. They should keep their receipts. I am a past employee yes, so I can only imagine what is happening to customers."
"All I know is that I paid the money and I should not be penalized for something that I have no control over and I am speaking as a customer, as a Belizean. I was proud to be a part of the bank. I actually started before it opened to the public and for this to happen to me, I can only imagine what is happening to other people."
Now, we are very aware that there are two sides to every story - and that is only one side. But, due to a strict confidentiality policy that governs all banks - the General Manager of the National Bank Alvaro Alamina says he wouldn't even think of commenting on this case. He said that the bank's staff is professional and willing to help and solve any customer's problem - but not on the media.
He added that they, quote, "have the best technology."
Young has previously worked at the DFC and Central Bank, and currently works at a Credit Union in Jamaica. She has now retained the services of an attorney.
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