Sangre Grande Chamber disappointed

The closure last Friday of RBC Royal Bank’s (RBC) Sangre Grande branch came as a disappointing surprise to the Sangre Grande Chamber of Commerce (SGCC).

The relocation became necessary after the bank was unable to reach an agreement with its landlord about renewing the lease.

Chamber president Ricardo Mohammed said, “This move by RBC appears to be a rash and irresponsible one showing no regards to its customers, who only became aware of this decision via (the) newspapers.”

Mohammed also said as a matter of courtesy, the bank’s corporate management should explain to customers why this decision was made without proper notification.

Mohammed expressed concern about the impact of the closure on members of the business community who would like to do daily monetary transactions, as well as on pensioners and people with special needs who used to visit the Sangre Grande branch.

He said the branch serviced a large catchment area, from Toco, Cumana, Matelot, Sans Souci, Balandra and Mathura to Manzanilla, Sangre Chiquito, Biche, Plum Mitan, Coalmine, Cumuto, Guaico, Tamana, Fishing Pond and Valencia.

Declaring that the chamber feels that “customers of RBC Sangre Grande have been treated with scant courtesy,” Mohammed had a number of questions for the bank, including whether RBC would be providing secured transportation for businessmen from Sangre Grande to Arima on a daily basis.

Newsday put these concerns to RBC’s managing director Darryl White, who said the bank too was disappointed by the sudden closure.

“It’s not ideal, so I don’t differ with the Sangre Grande chamber in that regard. We’ll always want those things to be orderly and give proper notice.”

White said this was unavoidable, however, because “it’s a commercial reality that sometimes you’ll have negotiations going on and they don’t turn out how you’d like them to.”

Anticipating that some customers, pensioners in particular who would be cashing their monthly pension cheques, may not have heard about the branch’s closure, RBC provided a shuttle service yesterday and today between Sangre Grande and its Arima branch which is open from 7 am all week and will soon offer Saturday banking.

White told Newsday, “I was at the Arima branch this morning (yesterday), where a lot of people were being served very quickly. Some people actually asked, ‘Where’s the clients?’, because they’re used to seeing a lot of clients there. Sometimes these things happen. It’s really how you respond to it.”

Regarding the staff who worked in Sangre Grande, White said there will be no job losses.

All affected staff will be reassigned to appropriate locations such as Arima, St Augustine and Trincity “where we feel most of the traffic will end up now that Grande has closed.”

RBC had three automated teller machines (ATMs) in its Sangre Grande branch. These had to be removed when the bank vacated the building over the weekend. But White said multiple locations in the area are being assessed for ATM placement and that will be done shortly.

While RBC believes digital banking is the future and “there’s a fantastic convenience to it”, White said there are no plans to become fully digital.

“We don’t want to be totally digital because technology can’t show empathy when a customer has a query and not everyone can embrace technology.”