petermopero wrote: Surely this must be the death of Barclays in Kenya…
Please avoid this cantankerous bank at all costs even if it’s other people’s money you intend to deposit in there. Imagine going to your bank and you are told that your account with 20M is blocked! Not because you have defaulted or you are skint but just that the bank has messed up yet again. This might happen in one scenario but not to numerous accounts
That was the exact scenes of the past week, scenes only expected in a horror movie or deathbed. Not at the banking halls of Barclays Bank Kenya, situation so shambolic both clients and staff scampering for psychiatric or divine intervention depending on whom you believe.
The “mighty” bank managed to achieve this catastrophe by shamelessly blocking the accounts of they that bank with them, some as long as before Mr Adan Mohamed the failure was still in diapers. This is unprecedented in the financial world as hyper turbulence hits the industry that boasts of having 42 registered banks in Kenya.
What is most disturbing is the reason behind the blocking of these accounts: LOST ACCOUNT OPENING DOCUMENTS.
The reason why we believe the management has gone mental is because some customers claim to have presented those said papers, as recently as April 2011 for the 3rd time. One wonders why they shall be stored securely a fourth time if they were not, the first time. This is very disturbing as one of the core products the bank boasts of efficiently proving is safe custody. They even charge customers for it.
When account opening documents are not safe how about TITLE DEEDS and LOGBOOKS which the bank has a charge over?
The dilemma is two faced
THE CUSTOMER
Imagine you have 50M in your Tourism business and it’s the peak. Your guests need to wire money before they leave Europe. You need to book hotel yet bed space is very competitive. Suppliers are on your neck but since you are an exceptional paymaster for the last 5 years and have built alliances to get credit. None of this is achievable because someone lost these documents. Your business is on the verge of collapse.
THE STAFF
These poor fellows have in some instances been forced to work up to 3am in some branches so as to try and rectify this serious anomaly.
Confused clients have shouted at this hapless people even though they know it is the bank’s mistake and they have nothing to do with it. Since they cannot reach Mr Mohamed, the customer care take full bollocking. After all they made 13.5 Billion for the bank last year.
Their only misfortune is working for BBK on a humble capacity because the bosses will not take any blame, no wonder none has resigned yet.
So far the bank has succeeded in muzzling and paying off the media but you can’t gag good whistle-blowers like us.
Somebody is bound to take this bank to the cleaners soon.
We are a reputable university in Kenya and we shut down our account with this bank because of them having too many lost documents.
We even kicked them out of our premises for misdemeanor.
No wonder they sold their custodial business to SCBK. Now they should be keeping their documents with SCBK for safe keeping and easier retrieval.
Problem with some Kenyans is they will always concentrate on finding fault with freely given and credible information but believe religiously news and information from CNN and Western controlled media houses.
Radio and Newspapers incidentally cannot write negatively about BBK as it is a major advertiser with the said Media houses.
Did Nation Media give you the truth about Libya? Zilch! Never! For the major shareholders have interests in the Western capitals.