The tendency for banks to exploit customers to enhance revenue and profitability is reflected  in the complaints below from two bank customers.

Customer James   made these complaints to his bank   between April 8th and April 14, “ A refund of $160.56   is being paid into my account from PAYPAL SERVICE and am yet to receive the money in my account…Please I want to know why the money is delay and when it is going to reflect in my account. I will definitely quit using the bank too.   (April 8)

“Hello James, all inconveniences regretted, the issue will be resolved on or before the close of business tomorrow (today).Thank you.”….That is what you told me yesterday, now it is getting to your closing hour. I am sure you have another story to tell. I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!!…….This is unfair since March 29th 2015 you people just keep on posting me…There is GOD OOh!!  (April 10)

Hello Bank XYZ, you told me to wait until this week that my MONEY is going to be ready. Please I will like to know what is going on ? April 14

Customer Carter complained on April 3rd, “Bank ABC  in Nigeria is really fucking up…..I was debited N 20, 000 and it has not been returned …..I will definitely quit using the bank.”

The issue in both complaints is the same. It is   using delay tactics to withhold customers’ money.    It has happened to several bank customers and it is still happening.  The banks usually blame such delay on system error, or need to ascertain customers’ claim. The truth however is that the bank is trading with the money while the customer is suffering.

In the case of the  Customer James above, why should it take the bank, one of the old generation banks, more than two weeks to verify the refund, which is from an international organisation?  Why can’t the bank honour its promise to resolve the issue?

The case of customer Carter is even surprising because it was a case of erroneous debit, which should not take more than one hour to investigate and resolve. Now these problems might have occurred erroneously but because they benefit the bank, they persist and the customer suffers.

Unfortunately, when the management of the bank announces huge profitability, there is no mention of profit derived by deliberately denying customers access to their money. Such exploitation is not captured in the various regulations of CBN. Though the regulator mandates that customers’ complaints should be resolved within certain days., most customers do not escalate their complaints to the CBN either due to ignorance or  they consider the amount involved not worth the trouble, hence they wait and complain for days till the bank is satisfied it has made  enough income trading with the money involved and refund it with cosmetic apologies.  (Send comments and enquiries to vanguardinvestorsforum@gmail.com)