My beef with BNS's ID policy

THE EDITOR, Sir:

An open letter to the Office of the Prime Minister and the Office of the Public Defender.

Several government agencies operate their current accounts through the Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica Ltd. Lately, this bank seems to have been abusing this trust by trying to force all persons receiving cheques from these agencies to open accounts with this bank, regardless of their desire to do so.

I receive a small stipend from the Government each month, drawn on this bank, and because I do not have an account there, I would make the monthly trek to its Port Royal Street branch to change my small cheque, with each occasion eliciting a warning that if I had an account with their bank, I would not incur the cheque-encashment charge. The cheque-encashment charge was a manageably small price to pay, but now BNS has increased the pressure.

Previously, I used to tender my national voter's ID to validate my identity, and this would prove sufficient to change my cheque, but last month, notices were posted that no cheques would be encashed to non-account holders without their presentation of at least two forms of government-issued picture IDs. As I only had my voter's identification card, the bank refused to encash my cheque. Why is this necessary? If the national ID is accepted as valid, am I not me without another form of ID that shows I am me?

I do not own a motor vehicle and see no need to go to the expense of acquiring a driver's licence, nor do I intend to travel and see no need to apply for an unnecessary and expensive passport.

For several years, because of misfortune, I could only afford to maintain a small amount of less than $5,000 in a savings account at the bank, and I regarded this as my very small umbrella for use in the inevitable rainy day. Thus, you can imagine my surprise when earlier this year, I was told that bank charges had consumed my meagre pittance, to bolster this poor, long-suffering bank's multibillion-dollar profitability.

At the same time, I cannot see why small cheque encashment should be made so painful. It is not likely that persons seeking these sums would be capable of creating a national ID with the distinguishable security features, nor would it be worth the effort.

forgery claim baseless

If BNS's fear is that one national picture ID can be forged, why would a person with the capability to forge one not be capable of forging two or more? The only plausible explanation is to force customers to acquire accounts with their institution. This I do not ever want to do; however, I also cannot afford to pay a businessman $500 each time to change my cheque for me, as I was forced to do last month.

Please, sirs, help the thousands of persons like me who are being abused by this institution. I am certain that if the requirement of two national IDs was applied to cheque encashment over a certain limit, say, $100,000, this would not be a huge security risk. Also, inform them of the security features on the national IDs so that their tellers will know what to look for to detect fraud.

If this bank cannot be persuaded to act more reasonably, I ask that governmental agencies either cease to operate current accounts with this abusive bank or, if this is not possible, to maintain current accounts for small payment categories with another bank with less predatory practices.

I am a Jamaican in desperate need!

AENON E. MOSS