Chief Councilor for Long Island Ian Knowles said yesterday that residents and business owners feel helpless after the final bank on that island pulled out earlier this year.
Earlier this year, Scotiabank closed five branches in the Family Islands – including Long Island – to consolidate those services at its New Providence locations, citing lower transaction volumes and a shift in customer behavior which became pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason.
Knowles said it is particularly frustrating and leading to a slow death for many business.
“Banking is an issue. We’ve been trying for some time to see if Bank of The Bahamas could come in and assist us but to no avail so far. It has left us in a helpless state,” he said while addressing the Long Island Business Outlook, which was held virtually yesterday.
“Without proper banking infrastructure in place, a business will die; and you can look throughout Long Island, there are not many government entities that are cashless, most of them are still using cash. So you can imagine the government pushing its cashless agenda with no debit card or credit card machines even in their own offices.”
The government has pledged to place at least 200 government services online in the next five years, after moving aggressively toward more digital payments and services since the end of last year. Additionally, The Central Bank of The Bahamas has touted his first digital currency – the Sand Dollar – as the solution for far-flung unbanked communities where brick and mortar financial institutions have exited.
But Knowles said despite these advancements, Long Island still struggles without a physical bank on the island.
“Especially the business community not being able to do deposits and other transactions. Could you imagine having a business on Long Island? Right after the banks closed there was talk of having to go to Nassau to make deposits and/or Exuma. Thankfully Omni stepped in and filled some of the needs those businesses experienced via banking,” he said.
“But when it comes to personal banking for those persons who are with Scotiabank or Royal Bank that closed some time ago, there is little to no personal banking on the island. Can you imagine living on Long Island right now and the ATM goes down on a Friday and doesn’t come back up until Monday? the whole weekend you’re without any kind of service or any kind of cash. I’ve had the experience recently of trying to get my credit card from Scotiabank.
“Could you imagine from March of this year and now it’s November and you cannot get a credit card that you are paying for? That’s how difficult it is when it comes to banking here on Long Island, especially when the older people get their checks, there’s no place on the island unless they know someone in a business who can cash it for them.”
The Central Bank this week said it would ramp up its digital currency campaign, noting that it is preparing to introduce Sand Dollars into family island communities and also implement a Sand Dollar Academy to enhance buy-in from businesses and financial institutions.
The Sand Dollar was launched nationwide in October 2020. There are now $302,785.04 worth of Sand Dollars in circulation, 28,003 digital wallets using them and about 845 merchants accepting them.
The post Chief councilor: Long Island in helpless banking state appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/chief-councilor-long-island-in-helpless-banking-state/
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