By McPherse Thompson, Staff ReporterNATIONAL COMMERCIAL Bank (NCB) automated teller machine customers will now receive three free monthly transactions as part of changes to the institution's core banking system introduced over the past few days.
"Everybody will get the first three transactions for the month free, but only at our ATMs," said Diane Smith-Sears, assistant general manager in charge of card services at NCB.
Last week, the bank changed the processing sequence for cash withdrawals at all its ATMs, allowing for the card to be returned to the customer before cash is dispensed and then a receipt is printed.
Mrs. Smith-Sears said one of the most important reasons for the change was because customers were mistakenly leaving their banking cards in the machines after removing cash. She said the bank had, for some time, been considering making adjustments to its ATM system to make it consistent with the operations of other institutions in the multilink network and later decided to do so as part of the changes to the core banking system.
The processing sequence that existed before last week allowed cardholders to make more than one transaction once the card has been inserted. Some customers believed that even if they made more than one transaction after the card had been inserted under the old system, they would only be charged a single fee of $8, since the card was only inserted once.
However, Mrs. Smith-Sears said customers would have paid for each transaction, regardless of whether the card was returned to them. That notwithstanding, she said under the new system, each customer would be allowed three free monthly transactions.
NCB is just the latest local bank to allot a specified number of free withdrawals each month, partly to reduce the number of people who use its banking halls. The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) Jamaica has, for some time now, allowed its customers five free monthly transactions, after which it charges a fee for each additional withdrawal.
The new core banking system, introduced on Monday of this week, will allow NCB customers to transact business at any of the island's 52 branches, regardless of the branch at which they hold their account. NCB said the new technology that would facilitate the system marked a major turning point in the company's history as it represented a revolutionary change to the core of its banking operations, for the purpose of ultimately bringing about more convenient, personalised and efficient customer care, as well as new and innovative products.
