NATIONAL Commercial Bank (NCB) announced yesterday that it will be suspending, with immediate effect, charges applied to local and foreign currency accounts classified as dormant.

“… While they are suspended, we will review our current processes and determine how we can best address the real costs associated with effectively maintaining and monitoring these accounts,” said Audrey Tugwell Henry, senior general manager, retail banking. “We will, in the meantime, seek to identify solutions that meet our customers’ needs and our performance standards, while remaining compliant with all regulatory requirements associated with maintaining the accounts,” she added.

A charge of $450 plus GCT was previously applied to both business and personal accounts classified as dormant.

Accounts are classified as dormant if there is no customer-induced activity on the account for a period of two years for savings accounts and a period of one year for current accounts. Under the Banking Services Act, deposit-taking institutions such as NCB are required to report to the Bank of Jamaica deposits treated as unclaimed, due to the absence of a transaction or request for a statement, for seven years. After a further eight years (a total of 15 years), the Act provides for the minister of finance to publish information on the unclaimed funds, to begin a procedure under which the unclaimed amounts are paid over to the Government of Jamaica.

NCB said yesterday that it is committed to adding value for its stakeholders and continues to extensively invest in technology and innovation, in order to enhance the level of service delivery offered to reach the levels our customers have now come to expect as a matter of course.