It hasn’t been a good month for two of our banks. They couldn’t control the drop in their share prices after the vote in Britain to leave the European Union, but the other problems are purely of their making.
I wanted to share both last week, but since then, both have now become international news stories:
TD got their foothold in the U.S. during the financial meltdown. They purchased Harris Bank and another one called Commerce Bank. Commerce Bank was loved by their customers. But those same customers might not be loving TD right now. NBC did an investigative report into coin counter machines. TD was found to shortchange people by 15% on their coins.
What? A bank that cannot count? Not a good PR move! On the other hand, you’d think the ones in retail stores might be questionable…but that’s not the case: They were all found to be accurate. Clark Howard, on over 400 radio stations in the U.S. calls it a big rip-off alert. Then it got worse: They knew their machines were ripping people off and STILL rolled them out in Canada! That’s now a class action lawsuit, according to CBC Marketplace. But when they knew this, why isn’t it criminal fraud?
The second one involves the Royal. Scotia closed most of their retail banking in the Caribbean last year. Now the Royal announced new and increased service charges for their customers. Some of them up to $11.75 a month. In the seven countries where they operate, the average minimum wage is $4.23. There have now been international media reports of lineups ranging two to three hours this week as locals close their accounts. That’s great to see: People voting with their wallets and firing their bank! Love it!