Dear Claudienne,

In 1994, my mother and I opened an account with Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS). My sister’s name was added to the account, but she was never informed or given the account number. In other words, the account could be accessed only by my mother and myself. Before and during the time of establishing this account, my mother, my sister and I lived in the United States. I made deposits to the account whenever I visited Jamaica. My brother, who lived in Jamaica but who is now deceased, also deposited money in it. However, he was not authorised to withdraw money from the account.

Since the account was established, I have made no withdrawals from it. In fact, before my return to Jamaica on April 28, 2014, the last time I was in the island was 1995.

Upon my return to the island in 2014, since my mother (now 96) could not tell me where to find the bank book for the account, I made several attempts to acquire a new bank book, but to no avail.

In February 2016, I visited the (VMBS) branch at Half Way Tree and learned that the account is still active with a balance. The records show that between 1994 and 2001 five withdrawals totalling $158,000 were made from the account.

The first withdrawal was made in 1994 for $3,000. In 1996 $140,000 was withdrawn, and in 1997 there were two withdrawals of $2,000 and $3,000. In 2001, $10,000 was withdrawn from the account. None of the withdrawals were made by me or my sister. However, my mother remembers making one withdrawal.

All my efforts to resolve this issue with VMBS representatives have been futile, and my concerns have not been adequately addressed.

This is what I was told by the VMBS representatives: “After seven years records have been destroyed, and that may very well be the case.” VMBS is now asking me to pay $17,000 to investigate all the withdrawals, plus $7,000 for them to investigate the two major withdrawals.

I believe that VMBS has an obligation to protect and secure all their clients’ investments and to notify them by letter or phone calls of any changes in policy before disposing of the records.

Finally, there would be no reason for my sister or me, or my mother, to be in Jamaica for two or three weeks and go and make a withdrawal for $2,000 or $3,000 when we have major credit cards.

I would greatly appreciate your help in getting VMBS to address this issue, and not try to sweep it under the rug.

FN

Dear FN,

Tell Claudienne made the office of the CEO at VMBS aware of your concerns, and one of their attorneys was assigned to deal with the matter. VMBS said that details concerning your account were confidential and could not be disclosed to a third party, so they would communicate with you directly.

The SVP Group Legal, Compliance and Corporate Secretary contacted you and informed us that they had provided you with written information about your account and that you had responded. She promised to review your response and reply.

You sent us a copy of the written response you received from VMBS dated July 1, 2016. Below is a section of the VMBS response about the type of account you had:

“On 7th February 1994, the account was opened as a joint account… .This joint account mandate allows any one of the account holders to access funds held in the account.

The account was opened as a Statement Account and therefore a passbook would not have been issued; instead a passcard with the account number would have been issued. For Statement Accounts, at the end of each calendar year, December 31, a statement is generated and mailed to the address provided… The Statement will indicate the names of all account holders.

You would have received your first statement detailing all transactions conducted on the account after 31 December 1994 and thereafter annually. Statements are issued annually as your transaction record for the account.

Kindly note once the annual statements are received, the account holders are required to review the statements and advise of any discrepancies. We confirm that the Society is required by law to retain transaction documents for a period of seven years. The transactions in question were conducted between 1994-2001, that is between 22 years to 15 years ago. Based on the retention period under the Laws of Jamaica the withdrawal slips would no longer be available.”

In regard to withdrawals, the VMBS letter to you stated the following:

We note that a VMBS vice-president met with you on Wednesday July 27 and that during those discussions he agreed to reimburse the amount you claimed. You also said that at the meeting VMBS agreed to credit your account with a certain amount of money. However, a condition of the agreement you signed was that you cannot disclose how much money VMBS agreed to credit to your account. You have informed us that VMBS has credited your account with the agreed amount.

“Withdrawals are only allowed by a named account holder upon presentation of appropriate identification.

We note that you have stated that your mother made a withdrawal from the account. We confirm that the above procedure would have been applicable to your mother in order to withdraw funds from the account as she is a named account holder. Likewise, any other withdrawals would have been subject to the same process.

We further advise that the Society at all times maintains proper identification and verification procedures to ensure that only account holders may transact withdrawals on accounts. These procedures seek to ensure that deposits are protected and accounts operated in accordance with the directions of the account holders.”

Tell Claudienne requested that VMBS meet with you, and the attorney promised to communicate with you and propose dates for the meeting.

We note that a VMBS vice-president met with you on Wednesday July 27 and that during those discussions he agreed to reimburse the amount you claimed. You also said that at the meeting VMBS agreed to credit your account with a certain amount of money. However, a condition of the agreement you signed was that you cannot disclose how much money VMBS agreed to credit to your account.

You have informed us that VMBS has credited your account with the agreed amount.

We wish you all the best.

Have a problem with a store, utility, a company? Telephone 936-9436 or write to: Tell Claudienne c/o Sunday Finance, Jamaica Observer, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5; or e-mail: edwardsc@jamaicaobserver.com. Please include a contact phone number.