Two weeks ago, we told you about the new bank charges. They see the commercial banks charging for use of the Automated Payments & Securities Settlement System, known as APSSS. This system was introduced with much fanfare in October 2016 - and enabled you to clear cheques and electronic payments across banks on the same day, rather than 48 to 72 hours. But, it comes with a charge, and in April, the Central Bank announced that it has been bearing those costs for the past two and a half years. And earlier this year, it asked the commercial banks to, quote, "contribute minimal fees for the processing of transactions through APSSS."
Of course, commercial banks - who never saw a fee they didn't want to hike - not only passed those costs along, but multiplied them! That's right, the fees that the banks are charging you are three, four and even eight times what the Central Bank is charging them!
Today, we got a rare chance to speak with a bank's senior executive. We met Filippo Alario at a scholarship ceremony and asked him to defend the fees:..
Reporter
"According to Central Bank they use to charge something like fifty cents plus, what now the banks are charging is well over 200%`hike. How do you justify that?"
Filippo Alario, Deputy C.E.O., CRO., Belize Bank
"I can't speak for another bank, but the charges that we charge as fees has to do with the cost of doing business. It's not really necessarily to make an exorbitant profit and we try to be as competitive as possible. Definitely it's not in our best interest to gouge anybody. The cost of banking has really gone through the roof, especially with compliance issues, AML issues, the pressures that a corresponding bank are putting on us and having robust AML frameworks - all of those cost unfortunately we can't absorb and we need to pass it somehow."
All transfers of funds from one bank to another attract the new charges, but those trusty cheques written from one bank and deposited at another, attract the highest charges - and the greater the value of the cheque, the higher the charge. It's called an "inclearing cheque fee."
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