Dear Claudienne,

On Thursday, June 29, 2023, at 12:39 pm, I did an ACH transfer from my JN [Jamaica National] account to my JMMB account, but to date (July 13) the transfer has not reached my JMMB account.

The account that it was sent to at JMMB is a saved transferee, and all I did was to review the information just to be safe. When I contacted the bank on Friday evening (June 30) I was told that the funds would take one to two business days to clear as it was done manually in batches. When I checked at the end of the day on Monday (July 3) I was told that the money was sent. I called JN on Tuesday (July 4) after not seeing the funds reflected on my account and was told that there were some problems with the bank’s ACH transaction methods.

I called back on Wednesday (July 5) to explain to them that I needed to speak to a supervisor as I urgently needed the funds as my rent and car loan payments were near due. The supervisor, after making some checks, informed me that they had an issue with the transaction because of the phrase I used when sending the money. The phrase I used was “Praising the Lord”, and I have been using it for more than two years whenever I do a transfer.

The supervisor told me that the phrase was changed because the system did not understand what “Praising the Lord” meant. He said that the transfer would be done by the next day.

When he did not see the funds on Thursday (July 6) the supervisor put me in contact with a customer service executive who told me that the issue had now been cleared and I should get the money by Friday (July 7).

I am yet to get that money at the time of writing to you (July 12) and my bills are now accruing interest for late payment.

Your help in this matter will be greatly appreciated.

RJ

Dear RJ

Tell Claudienne has been in communication with Jamaica National in respect of your concerns.

The column notes that on July 13 JN advised you that the sum transferred would be reflected in your JMMB account by Monday, July 17.

Tell Claudienne has received the following e-mail from Jamaica National Group Limited on the delayed processing of the ACH transaction.

“Thank you for yours of July 13 bringing to our attention the matter of the delayed processing of the ACH transaction initiated by RJ on June 29. Our investigations revealed that RJ’s inclusion of the phrase ‘Praise the Lord’ in the additional details/description field unfortunately raised red flags at our correspondent bank, and the transfer was subject to enhanced due diligence screening by the correspondent bank. The correspondent bank requested that RJ provide more information in relation to the ‘Lord’ who was referenced. This information was communicated to RJ and his response was relayed to the correspondent bank.

The JN Bank team continued their work to have the matter resolved, escalating efforts to process the transaction without further delays. On July 17 the funds were credited to the intended account.

A transaction such as one initiated by RJ is heavily scrutinised as a part of collective efforts to keep banking systems safe and compliant with local and global anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism regulations.

We encourage all customers to only provide details that are specific to the questions that are asked when completing banking transactions.”

We wish you all the best.

Have a problem with a store, utility, a company? Telephone 876- 936-9436 or Cell # 876-484-1349 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.