Republic Bank confirms its systems impacted by fraudulent activity

Following a public outcry and complaints from its customers, Republic Bank Limited today confirmed that some of its customers have been impacted by recent fraudulent activity using it Visa International Debit Cards.

This week persons in Guyana have complained of unauthorised deductions being made from their bank accounts, and they said that they are not happy with how the matter is being dealt with by the prominent city bank.

In a statement issued today, Republic Bank said that through its robust monitoring systems, the Bank was able to quickly identify cases where customers’ cards were compromised and was able to effectively minimise the risk to other customers.

“The Bank is taking the necessary steps to regularise all affected accounts using a well-defined, standard process, focussed on reducing customer inconvenience. The Bank regrets the inconvenience to its customers and advises that impacted customers will be asked to confirm and validate their transactions to assist with this process,” the banking institution said.

It said that it has advised that in the interim, additional security measures have been put in place to reduce further impact, and as a result, some customers may experience interruptions in service levels.

“The Bank will continue to ensure that the most up-to-date security is available through all of its channels toward the financial safety of the banking public. The Bank also takes this opportunity to remind customers of the need to be vigilant when using their debit cards and monitoring their account activity,” the bank said in its statement.

Communications Officer at the Competitions and Consumers Affairs Commission, Allison Parker, told the Guyana Chronicle on Tuesday that affected persons can file a report of such incidents with them, and they will investigate the matters.

The CCAC has confirmed that at least one case was recently reported to the agency, and they were able to help the consumer get back the missing money.

The issue of money disappearing from accounts may have been going on for some time now. One customer said she experienced the problem more than once at the well-known city bank.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said the first time she realised suspicious activity on her account was when $8000 disappeared from her account. By the time she reported the matter, another $4000 disappeared.

She said the first time she experienced the problem, she had never used her card to conduct any Online shopping. In this first case, she informed that the bank could give no reason for the deduction from her account; not even suspicious Online shopping, and eventually refunded her some 70 per cent of the money. She said the bank said it was a “system error”.

Several persons complained today that they too have been experiencing losses in their accounts.

A resident of Lethem told this publication that she lost more than $100,000 from her account. Like many other persons with similar complaints, she was told to wait 60 to 90 working days for the issue to be remedied.

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