Maduro and Cu­riel’s Bank (MCB) said it is doing its utmost to address and solve “all possible concerns and is­sues” that arose from the transfer of the accounts of Saba clients from Windward Islands Bank (WIB) in St. Maarten to MCB Bonaire.

“While we are still en­countering some issues, we are pleased to indi­cate that these are being handled and resolved with the necessary dili­gence and urgency on our end,” general man­aging director of MCB Bonaire Leonard Domacassé stated in response to a letter full of complaints pertaining to the transfer of private and business accounts of cli­ents in Saba sent by Saba Business Association (SBA) last week.

The bank pledged its support and assistance to all clients who were affected by the trans­fer, “so they too can continue enjoying the benefits of our online banking system,” Domacassé stated in his letter to SBA president Alida Heilbron of Saturday, November 12.

MCB will have two rep­resentatives present in Saba on Thursday, No­vember 24, to assist their business and retail cus­tomers with the online banking platforms.

“It is our intention to have our representatives available for two days in the months of Novem­ber and December. We will make sure to send out a notification with the exact dates. We are also working on a long­term solution in order to assist our Saba clients, who are extremely valu­able to us,” Domacassé said.

SBA said Tuesday it was “pleased to know” that MCB is doing its ut­most to solve all possible concerns and issues that arose from the transfer, diligently and urgently.

“It is an absolute ne­cessity,” as several is­sues are still lingering, SBA president Heilbron wrote in a response let­ter to the bank, which was sent on Tuesday, November 15.

SBA is particularly disappointed that one of its gravest concerns was not addressed. “We still have not received a satisfactory response to the question why we are being charged [US — Ed.] $1.06 for every single transaction from our MCB Bonaire ac­count to another MCB Bonaire account. Again, according to your rate schedule, this should be free of charge, but it is not.”

The business associa­tion said it was pleased with the fact that MCB would send a represen­tative to Saba this month and the next, but accord­ing to SBA, that is not enough. “You will un­derstand that two days is clearly not enough and having to wait until next week is not soon enough. At least one senior, knowledgeable bank employee should have been on Saba be­fore, during and after the migration.”

In closing her letter to MCB bank, SBA presi­dent Heilbron stated, “We cannot stress enough that concerns expressed again in this letter have created and are still creating major frustration for especially business account hold­ers.”

The Daily Herald.