Barbados' Commercial Banks Condemned For Profiteering

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

16 August 2002

It emerged recently that commercial banks in Barbados continue to levy what have been deemed unreasonable levels of fees and commissions on their customers, despite action taken by the Central Bank of Barbados last year to reduce this type of activity.

In a statement released almost a year ago, on August 21, 2001, the Central Bank announced that it had 'been concerned for some time about complaints from the public about the cost of services provided by the commercial banks and has been analyzing the problem over the past few weeks'.

However, despite agreeing guidelines with the banks limiting the charges which can be levied, the recently released PricewaterhouseCoopers Barbados Banking Industry 2001 Performance Highlights reveals that the jurisdiction's seven commercial banks collected some $58 million in charges and fees last year, a 13% increase on the 2000 figures, not entirely indicative of restraint.

According to the PwC report, only Barclays Bank and The Mutual Bank recorded reduced income from fees and commission last year.

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