Scotiabank Jamaica delays fee hike for six months

Scotiabank Jamaica has delayed fee increases for automated banking machines (ABMs) and point of sale machines for six months.

The new fees, which were slated to take effect today, would have resulted in the charge for ABM withdrawals at Scotiabank machines moving to $25 per transaction and $60 for withdrawals at other banks' ABMs. 

Scotiabank says it will ramp up public education during the period. 

Account options 

At the same time, Scotiabank says it will expand one of its account options to Jamaicans in a bid to reduce the impact of increased fees for some clients.

In a release Monday evening, Scotiabank said it will expand its Payroll Account to any customer with a monthly income of less than $100,000. 

This will be done whether or not the individual's salary is deposited to the account.

This account type has no minimum balance requirement and attract no fees for Scotiabank ABMs or point of sale transactions.

The bank will also increase promotion surrounding other account types designed for customers who earn less than $100,000 per month and are enrolled in government assistance programmes.

The bank says senior citizens with Scotia accounts can use Scotia ABMs and point of sale machines for free. 

'Offer better fees'

But a business professor says local banks should do greater analysis of their customer base to offer better fees.

Densil Williams, Professor of International Business at the University of the West Indies, says this would also encourage more unbanked individuals to join a financial institution. 

“What we’ll have to do is to do the necessary analysis and say there are a lot of persons in the unbanked population. If you were to give them a package like that would motivate them to do banking.”

Professor Williams says customers should also bear in mind that banks incur significant operational costs. 

“When you look at banks having to pay asset tax, all these regulatory fees - they have to put money in ATM machines. It’s a huge cost and they have to find away to offset that cost. Even in the context of banking — even though they may appear to be making big profits, they are way below industry standards,” said Professor Williams, who was speaking Monday evening on TVJ's Prime Time News.