Ky­ron Reg­is

ky­ron.reg­is@guardian.co.tt

The Banker’s As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (BATT) has an­nounced that there will soon be changes to the op­er­a­tions of some bank­ing in­sti­tu­tions.

In a re­lease, BATT said that it would be im­ple­ment­ing a re­duc­tion in the op­er­a­tion of some branch­es and an ad­just­ment in the clos­ing and open­ing hours of oth­er branch­es.

BATT not­ed that these changes are in “an ef­fort to min­i­mize dis­rup­tion of ser­vices to our cus­tomers while en­sur­ing the safe­ty and well-be­ing of our staff and stake­hold­ers.”

The As­so­ci­a­tion ex­plained: “These mea­sures will be im­ple­ment­ed ef­fec­tive this week un­til fur­ther no­tice.”

BATT ex­pressed that cus­tomers can vis­it their banks’ web­site for fur­ther de­tails with re­spect to the clo­sure of branch­es and open­ing and clos­ing hours.

The As­so­ci­a­tion in­di­cat­ed that en­hanced san­i­ti­za­tion pro­to­cols have al­ready been im­ple­ment­ed on the premis­es of the in­sti­tu­tions for the safe­guard­ing of both staff and cus­tomers.

BATT re­mind­ed cus­tomers that the On­line plat­forms and ATMs of the var­i­ous bank­ing in­sti­tu­tions re­main op­er­a­tional and avail­able to han­dle most of the cus­tomer needs.

Ac­cord­ing to BATT: “The safe­ty of our cus­tomers, staff and broad­er com­mu­ni­ty re­mains our ab­solute pri­or­i­ty and we are con­fi­dent in our abil­i­ty to con­tin­ue to de­liv­er, through these changes, the ser­vice our cus­tomers ex­pect and de­serve.”

Mean­while, Sco­tia­bank has an­nounced that from 23rd March 2020, the Sales Cen­tres in Cunu­pia, Princes Town and Point Fortin re­main closed.

The bank added that there will be re­duced bank­ing hours where non-mall branch­es will op­er­ate from 8 am to 1 pm from Mon­day to Thurs­day and 8 am to 2 pm on Fri­day’s. Where­as the bank’s mall branch­es will open at 10 am and close at 3 pm from Mon­day to Fri­day.

Sco­tia­bank has al­so im­ple­ment­ed a dai­ly, ded­i­cat­ed hour for the el­der­ly and dis­abled cus­tomers, which will be the first hour. The bank not­ed: “We ask cus­tomers to re­spect this ded­i­cat­ed time for those in our com­mu­ni­ty that are most vul­ner­a­ble and please vis­it our non-mall branch­es af­ter 9 am and mall branch­es af­ter 11 am.”

Re­pub­lic Bank Lim­it­ed (RBL) has al­so an­nounced pri­or­i­ty bank­ing for the el­der­ly, dif­fer­ent­ly-abled and pub­lic as­sis­tance clients from March 25th to April 3rd, 2020. RBL al­so not­ed that the first hour of each day will be sole­ly ded­i­cat­ed to pro­vid­ing bank­ing ser­vices to the afore­men­tioned clients.

It con­tin­ued: “Out­side of that first hour, the el­der­ly and dif­fer­ent­ly-abled clients will al­so be pro­vid­ed with a ded­i­cat­ed teller ac­cess and will be af­ford­ed pref­er­en­tial ser­vice to en­sure an ac­cel­er­at­ed turn­around time”.

RBL said that the fol­low­ing branch­es will re­main open to the pub­lic: Ari­ma, Auchenskeoch (To­ba­go), Cen­tre City, Cou­va, Eller­slie, Gulf View, High Street, In­de­pen­dence Square, Park Street, Pe­nal, Princes Town, Pt. Fortin, Rio Claro, San Juan Branch (East), San­gre Grande, South Park, Trinci­ty, Tu­na­puna, West Mall and Wood­brook.

It not­ed that all oth­er branch­es and agen­cies will be closed to the pub­lic un­til fur­ther no­tice.

RBL al­so ex­plained that the Eller­slie, Gulf View, South Park, Trinci­ty and West Mall branch­es would be open at 10:00 am and close at 3:00 pm from Mon­day to Fri­day. The bank said all oth­er branch­es would op­er­ate from Mon­day to Fri­day from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm.

Ef­fec­tive from March 25, 2020, RBC Roy­al Bank has al­so an­nounced that its branch­es in Trinci­ty, Mara­bel­la, and Point Lisas will be tem­porar­i­ly closed.