Police 'monitoring' PriceSmart credit card incident

POLICE ARE "monitoring developments" over last week's discovery that unknown charges were made to PriceSmart customers' credit card accounts on Friday, with reimbursements falling short of the original figure.

Since the incident, there have been calls on social media for the matter to be investigated. In a brief response to a query from Newsday through the corporate communications unit, the office of the ACP White Collar Crime Division said: "No formal report has been made on this matter to the best of my knowledge. But we are monitoring the developments." While the police may not be actively pursuing the incident, Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon told Newsday on Monday she asked the Consumer Affairs Division to investigate the matter.

In a release on Tuesday, Republic Bank Ltd apologised to banks and customers for the incident but added it fixed the "technical challenges" which resulted in the charges.

The bank's release confirmed the incident, saying transactions conducted from August 14 to September 6 "at certain merchants," were reversed and re-posted within the past few weeks.

"The bank acknowledges that this was because of technical challenges experienced with our credit card processing system which resulted in the original transactions being incorrectly processed as USD transactions. The bank also confirms that these issues have since been corrected," it said.

The release said it is working closely with all local banks to identify impacted customers and will take all steps necessary to address any discrepancies. "We appreciate the concern that this situation has caused to customers and our valued merchant partners and for this, we sincerely apologise," it said.

Further elaborating, Republic Bank managing director, Nigel Baptiste told Newsday the bank is the merchant for PriceSmart so the technical challenge on their end caused the ripple across other banks when customers used their cards. Since the incident, customers expressed fear about using their cards again. However, Baptiste said the problem will not reoccur.

"There is no reason for any hesitance. The system is all secure...and this was a one-off technical issue that has been resolved," he said.

Following the incident, Tobago Business Chamber head, Martin George, called on all commercial banks to provide better service to customers by bringing their customer service experience up to international standards and improving their ease of doing business.

"They clearly need to do better for their consumers in Trinidad and Tobago," he said. "This incident...has exposed the frailty and fragility of our banking system and the safeguards and procedures that are supposed to be there to protect consumers." He also criticised the high levels of bureaucracy and requirements often used by banks as part of their systems for customers.

In a statement on Monday, PriceSmart acknowledged a "technical issue in processing," which affected multiple banks and merchants outside its control. It blamed fluctuations in the foreign exchange rate for the difference between the sum charged and what was reimbursed. PriceSmart said it is working with all banks to have the issue rectified. "We will ensure that any member who has a discrepancy on their account resulting in an overcharge will be reimbursed for the difference in charges," it said. On Monday, the Bankers Association assured customers that the incident was "not any type of fraudulent or cyber-crime activity against customers and their banking information remains secure."