Dear Editor,

This author is writing this article with the hope that the younger generation will find it useful and as a guide in their decision-making process.

Some of the information in this short article will be dealt with in depth in one of the books to be released in 2024. In the meantime, I found it necessary and imperative to draw attention to some of the bank’s operations as well as general insurance companies.

Before I go on, I must point out that, as aresearcher, I am not afraid to name some of these institutions. A few of my friends and I have been subjected to all kinds of charges and unprofessional attitude in dealing with them. Most of the commercial banks today are not in the public space trying to sell their programmes and financial services, as was in the past. And why should they? Because they can hold the public at ransom as large companies such as business process outsourcung firms and mulitnationals deposit their employees’ salaries in one bank, whether they like that bank or not, making them compelled to take out a debit card. In other words, by the stroke of a pen, a commercial bank can get hundreds of clients in one day through that process.

The choice of a financial institution, therefore, may have been taken away from individuals in a democratic country. In the case of some general insurance companies, again, whether affiliated to banks or not, they have customers signing claim forms that they have received large amounts of funds when they have not and have no idea if the same will be received.

People are frustrated and are questioning the legality with regards to signing a receipt for money when no money is paid. It is imperative to question the legality of signing these claim forms without receiving the sums of money. My argument therefore has left a whole host of serious questions to be answered by these financial institutions who seem out of control. Where are the regulatory bodies?

In my articles and books to come I will determine if these institutions are banks or bandits.

Dr Lee Bailey, JP

Montego Bay

St James