CUSTOMERS of Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited have been asked to contact the bank’s headquarters in Trinidad in order to activate their visa debit cards for online transactions.

The Guyana Chronicle was reliably informed of this new security measure that was put in place and made effective from June 10, 2019. With this, customers would have to contact the bank’s headquarters in Trinidad and Tobago (TT) and verify their identity and ownership of the account by providing the personal details and contact information associated with the account.

The numbers to contact the bank’s TT headquarters were given as: +1 868 627 6000, +1 868 627 3348, and +1 868 625 1200.

The Customer Service Representative, at the TT HQ, who spoke with Guyana Chronicle when contacted, indicated that this measure is part of the “new protocols” developed by the bank to ensure greater security when using visa cards.

Additionally, he noted that it is a measure the bank is not only introducing in Guyana, but across all of the Republic Bank locations throughout the Caribbean.

This measure, however, comes amidst concerns customers have about the security of the bank, particularly in the context of the recent fraud involving the bank’s Visa International Debit Cards. In May, via a statement issued, Republic Bank confirmed that some of its customers have been impacted by recent fraudulent activity on those debit cards.

Subsequent to the discovery of the fraud activity, the bank advised that customers would be asked to confirm and validate their transactions to assist with the process of ensuring tighter security.

And as such, persons were required to notify the bank of whatever online transactions they wished to engage in and provide details of the website where these transactions were being made. After doing so, customers would have to wait for one hour for the local main office to give an ‘all-clear’ before proceeding with the transactions.

According to this newspaper’s source at the bank, Friday, June 7 was the last day local branches of the commercial bank offered this service before the measure of contacting Trinidad was implemented.

When contacted by Guyana Chronicle for official confirmation of this new measure, a representative from the local Republic Bank Main Office indicated that this information would be provided at a later date.