Which is the Best Bank?

[matronyx]

I prefer Scotia.

[seanbee20]

NCB all the wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

[matronyx]

You uys know more about this banking thing than me....
what are the pros and cons for NCB vs Scotia.

[Xenocrates]

I think Scotia has better interest rates, but tougher qualifications.

All in all, I just use NCB for convenience. All the dough get's re-routed elsewhere (investment) after that. 'sides, their ATMs are all over the place. NCB is a major plus if u work for Gov't as well.... you get paid one day early.... no long lines .....direct deposit ......nice. ;)

[seanbee20]

I couldn't really say the Pros and cons for each bank, but i can give the Pros and Cons for NCB with regards to my experiences.

PROS

1) Education Initiative - NCB recently lauched this plan to help better the education system in Jamaica, where 1% of keycard credit card sales will be donated to assist in Education, which will equate to about 150million a year (maybe this will help your child, if you have any in the future)
2) Savings Bonanza - NCB is giving customers a chance to win a million dollars every month and 5 every quarter, this by just simply banking with is, we also have wealth creation seminars for free to assist the public in managing their wealth and how to gain wealth
3) Complete re-investment of all profits back into Jamaica - NCB along with its Auditors' Price Waterhouse and Cooper are maintaing that all profits made be kept in the island and re-invested into the country
4) Rescuing of Mutual Life Towers - NCB recently purchased Mutual Life Towers (name soon to be changed) from 950 million from Finsac which was to be purchased by a foreign company until NCB came in.
Building a massive Fully Computerized Training center for staff and Schools.
5) NCB also has been recognised three years in a row as having the best banking I.T. Division in Jamaica.
State of the ART I.T. Division - topclass equipment
6) NCB is owned by a company called AIC from Canada (Mr. Lee Chin owns both) - and staff are given the oppurunity to interchange between working environments meaning that this month, you may work in Jamaica and the next month you may be assigned abroad working for AIC and so on.
7) NCB has what is currently regarding as the best banking system in Jamaica, which was implemented on December 2002.
8) NCB is the first bank in Jamaica to offer Internet Banking - where customers are able to do most of their transactions online.
9) NCB has a state of the art CRM facility allowing it to view a customers affairs from a 360 degree view, we can inform a customer about all of its accounts with just one click of a button, even if the account is with a subsidary like Witco, Edward and Gayle so on.
10) Any branch banking - RBTT was the fisrt bank to implement this to jamaicans and NCB followed suit, Scotia i believe still hasn't fully implemented this system as yet where customers can go to any branch and do transactions without having their passbooks, how this works is by using an online signature verification engine, where all branches can view a customers signature online, so no need for a passbook to draw or deposit funds.
11) NCB currently has the most ATM's in the country.
12) NCB is on pace to be the first bank to fully implement E-Commerce in Jamaica (in conjunction with Cable and Wireless)

I can go on and on

CONS
1) Image was tarnished some years back, where persons thought NCB was going bankrupt, thus our slip to number 2 position in Jamaica in the list of top Banks
2) Staff loans policy is riduclous

[matronyx]

they need more IT people? serious note....

[seanbee20]

Yes we are definately under staffed, i beleive some new employees are joining us today though, don't know if they are hiring any more, but it is worth a try.

I wouldn't trade my time at NCB for the world right now, this environment is so exciting, learning is a constant thing here, just imagine working on a project that can cost the company millions if not done right, the least mistake here can have a major impact on the business

[matronyx]

Yes we are definately under staffed, i beleive some new employees are joining us today though, don't know if they are hiring any more, but it is worth a try.

I wouldn't trade my time at NCB for the world right now, this environment is so exciting, learning is a constant thing here, just imagine working on a project that can cost the company millions if not done right, the least mistake here can have a major impact on the business


trust mi mi yout, we know about that!!!

one incorrect line of code could cause our company millions of dollars (US of course)...so when u do supn, number one rule

ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP

[seanbee20]

Which company do you work for?

[matronyx]

www.acs-inc.com

[seanbee20]

Where in Mobay is this company based, and what are the main services/products they offer?

[sandor]

uhmm .. what does this topic have to do with technology?

you mean best bank from the perspective of the features and services (that are tech-related) that they offer?

[Gillion]

Scotia is a much better institution to put my money.
Considering that they have the backing of
their Canadian Parent, I feel their financial
base is more reliable.
After all Canada's Economy is in much better health than ours.
I trust their Management structure more.
They also have the benifit of First World banking experience.
Can't trust anything with economics and Jamaican these days.
Just my opinion.


--
gillion

[tech_guru]

Whichever instution you have a "link" in senior management is the best place for your money...............

If you a poor dude like myself under your matress is the best bet..........;D ;D ;D

[seanbee20]

Gillion, this is a good point, but you must feel as if NCB is still owned by the Government, if so you must be living in a cave, as almost everyone should know that Multi-millionaire, Micheal Lee Chin bought NCB from Finsac, and is now also owned by a Canadian company AIC, which is currently the largest finanial institution in Canada, they have shares in Infosys (the largest I.T. company in India), they are also the major shareholder for the top supermarket in London, forgot the name, any way, please read the extract below taken from the Jamaica Observer.

On Wednesday March 26, members of the media were invited to share in the celebration of the first anniversary of parent company AIC and National Commercial Bank (NCB).

General Manager of Training and Human Resources Division, Rickert Allen, who chaired the function, said that the Jamaican media have made tremendous contribution in bringing home the message of the institution and the feedback of the public.

In March 2002, Michael Lee-Chin, head of AIC,acquired the FINSAC shares of NCB making AIC the bank`s parent company. Quoting the Chairman, Mr. Allen said, the diamond (NCB), is being dusted off and restored to its radiance.

A video presentation highlighted the progress of the company over the past year which included implementing a new core banking system and other changes to “restore the public`s confidence in NCB.” The video also highlighted corporate citizenship projects that the bank has been involved in during the year, the work done with Red Cross, the Salvation Army and United Way, to assist farmers who suffered after severe floods last year.

Deputy Chairman of AIC, Kris Astaphan, said AIC is committed to building a great Jamaica, a great Caribbean. AIC-NCB Chairman, Michael Lee-Chin, noted that what the `marriage` between AIC and NCB has achieved over the past year, has been beyond belief. He said he was proud that they have achieved what they had set out to do and they remain committed to building an organization that has a heart and soul, one that re-invests in Jamaica. He added that, “whatever obstacle the institution encounters they will either go over it, under it, through it, or around it but we are going to solve it.” In the end NCB hopes to leave a legacy that the future generation will be proud of.

In the tropical garden setting created between the Mutual Life Towers, soon to be re-named NCB Towers, the Chairman was joined by his mother, Gloria Chen, and Group Managing Director, Aubyn Hill, in cutting the birthday cake and toasting the success of the institution.

Published 30th March 2003
Sunday Gleaner

[Xenocrates]

Staff loans policy is riduclousa

- I think this goes for just about every bank. Taking a loan out here for anything is practically the same as borrowing it.

[Gillion]

Gillion, this is a good point, but you must feel as if NCB is still owned by the Government, if so you must be living in a cave, as almost everyone should know that Multi-millionaire, Micheal Lee Chin bought NCB from Finsac, and is now also owned by a Canadian company AIC, which is currently the largest finanial institution in Canada, they have shares in Infosys (the largest I.T. company in India), they are also the major shareholder for the top supermarket in London, forgot the name, any way, please read the extract below taken from the Jamaica Observer.

On Wednesday March 26, members of the media were invited to share in the celebration of the first anniversary of parent company AIC and National Commercial Bank (NCB).

General Manager of Training and Human Resources Division, Rickert Allen, who chaired the function, said that the Jamaican media have made tremendous contribution in bringing home the message of the institution and the feedback of the public.

In March 2002, Michael Lee-Chin, head of AIC,acquired the FINSAC shares of NCB making AIC the bank`s parent company. Quoting the Chairman, Mr. Allen said, the diamond (NCB), is being dusted off and restored to its radiance.

A video presentation highlighted the progress of the company over the past year which included implementing a new core banking system and other changes to “restore the public`s confidence in NCB.” The video also highlighted corporate citizenship projects that the bank has been involved in during the year, the work done with Red Cross, the Salvation Army and United Way, to assist farmers who suffered after severe floods last year.

Deputy Chairman of AIC, Kris Astaphan, said AIC is committed to building a great Jamaica, a great Caribbean. AIC-NCB Chairman, Michael Lee-Chin, noted that what the `marriage` between AIC and NCB has achieved over the past year, has been beyond belief. He said he was proud that they have achieved what they had set out to do and they remain committed to building an organization that has a heart and soul, one that re-invests in Jamaica. He added that, “whatever obstacle the institution encounters they will either go over it, under it, through it, or around it but we are going to solve it.” In the end NCB hopes to leave a legacy that the future generation will be proud of.

In the tropical garden setting created between the Mutual Life Towers, soon to be re-named NCB Towers, the Chairman was joined by his mother, Gloria Chen, and Group Managing Director, Aubyn Hill, in cutting the birthday cake and toasting the success of the institution.

Published 30th March 2003
Sunday Gleaner


Many moons ago, when Century died with my money and stocks, I lost faith in Jamaica's banking system. Then eventually NCB got "trapped" in some "monkey bussiness" as well and Finsac took control of them, so like most people, I went to Scotia.

Now how I view things in general, once you loose me as a customer, thats it. They got into trouble once, they can do it again. I just have no faith in Jamaican Economists. For all its worth, thanks for informing me about the changes your institution has made, but I really don't care. This oddly enough reminds me of the effort that C&W made with their "come home campaign"... for me pointless.

If Scotia gets into trouble, thats it... I done with them too. perhaps I will go with RBTT and failing that I will probably use my Socks to save money thereafter.

I recently told my cousin that C&W sucks, and he was telling about all the great reforms they made (he works with them), blah, blah blah. Two days later Mr Miller himself resigns and a report comes out that C&W in London is not happy with their performance.

I just preffer Scotia as I preffer Digicel.

--regards
Gillion

[sandor]

ohh ... ncb heads ... 'rumor on the road' is that NCB and Citibank were the two main players involved in the speculation on the J$ the other day .. is true? is true that lee-chin sought to buy US$50 million from off the f/x market?

for me, scotia is the safest place to put money right here now. i doubt there'll be a crisis such as the one in the past which say people losing lots of their savings at eagle commercial and century national .. but who to tell

[seanbee20]

No, that is not true, NCB had no role to play in that, and if you were in tuned to the news would have known that NCB was one of the key players in getting the dollar stabilized, Mr. Lee Chen flew from Canada as soon as he heard the rumors and offered help to the Government, so those rumors are definately not true with regards to NCB. Look at it logically, the man has made a commitment to not export a dime of NCB profits because he wants a better jamaica, and has re-invested so much, what is the logical reason then for him to left the dollar go so high, knowing the impact it would have on the country and ultimately on business

[Nastrodamus]

If I recall...seanbee you work at NCB......


hhhmmm


Sounds like you have been heavily indoctrinated :D

[sandor]

i know a few 'traders' that work at other commerical banks and merchant banks, and when i raised the question to three of them .. at totally different and independent times, all three said the same thing ... NCB and Citibank were the main speculators.

i'm sure the banks stood to gain a lot more (in the arbitrage) than they would lose ... as the dollar devalued. consipracy theories could abound, but really, is very few banks have a certain power over the market .. bns, ncb and citibank. maybe bns' actions are heavily regulated by the top dogs in canada or they are just simply conservative by nature ... so that leaves citibank and ncb ... hmmm

[seanbee20]

What led to the devaluation of the dollar is not in my opnion any action from one or two persons or entities, the dollar devalued becuase we as Jamaicans let it, i know of countless persons who went the dollar began devaluing, held the $US as if it was gold, just waiting for it to go high enough for them to sell, i am sure that we each had a role to play, takes things like the heavy importation in this country (i myself am guilty of that), these are just some of the many perils that affected and will keep affecting the stability of the dollar and ultimately Jamaica's economy.

And yes Nastradamus, i do work at NCB, and i know my opnions may seem biased towards the company i work for, any proud employee would speak highly of their company, but i can say this, that i have been offered numerous jobs in the I.T. Banking sector, i was given the oppurtunity to work for Scotia and RBTT, and i chose not to, not because of higher pay or anything, i just feel proud of what NCB stands for and the goals they are trying to achieve for this country, and if i can be apart of the change that i know will result in this country, then i feel that is worthwhile.

I have nothing against other banks, i grew up banking with Scotia, i have an account there, my mother, father, brother all bank with Scotia, but being in the organization of NCB and actually seeing the good they are trying to do behind the scenes has led me to believe and hold that ethically, they are the best bank in Jamaica.

And in closing i would like to add that true, Scotia is the # 1 ranked bank in Jamaica, but NCB is the #1 ranked bank in the Caribbean.

[Chris]

Still waiting for the TECHNOLOGY aspect of this discussion ::)

[seanbee20]

Chris, i believe that i did highlight some technological aspects to this discussion, such as which currently has the best I.T. Division, Internet Banking, ATMs, Any Branch Banking, these are some of the areas in which this discussion can be linked to Technology, i can also had another spin to this, does anyone know of the differnet technologies being utilized by the different banks,

NCB uses servers from Sun Microsystems and their new banking system was written in Java (JSP, Servlets so on). Also utilized heavily is UNIX, NT4.

languages most used to develop applications - Visual basic, crystal reports, cobol, asp, unix scripting, MRT - Maha Reporting Template, jsp, servlets

[Xenocrates]

Somehow, many of the responses in this thread don't seem to be related at all to the topic. I dunno, mebbe it's just me. ;D

[deakie]

well, as im offsure, its good to hear some debate bout the banking system down there. and yes, its good to hear it from these techies who 'speaka my language', so mi feel mi know wha gwaan dung deh....so respect still.

now ya can gwaan wid di tech business.... :D

[Chris]

Chris, i believe that i did highlight some technological aspects to this discussion, ...

Yes I know seanbee20, but when the discussion started going into the speculative f/x industry, I didn't want it to go that far off the beaten track ;)

[seanbee20]

reasonable

[sandor]

i couldn't care less what o/s or whatever hardware a bank has going on behind the scene. they could be using an abacus .. as long as i don't hear that commonly used and most annoying excuse .. "ahmmmm, the SYSTEM is down right now".

personally, all of the jamaican banks get failing grades from me, simply because ecommerce has been available globally prob since the early 1990s, and TO THIS DAY, not one of jamaica's banks has seriously sought to make J$ ecommerce (online real time transactions) a reality .. none of them have acted as a catalyst, working with the govt. or whatever for this sort of thing (if they are, it tek over a decade to happen and hasnt yet) ... NCB i blame especially because i personally remember since 1997 them promising ecommerce .... and really, ncb dominates (they do still?) this whole credit card point of sale ting in regular stores, so they should have been the ones to make the first step for this to be made available online.

so when someone can use a J$ credit card online .. IN REAL TIME .. to complete a purchase, then maybe i'll start thinking that we catching up with the world

[seanbee20]

Sandor, your ecommerce points are all valid, and i being on the ecommerce team at NCB feel i have to defend or state our position with regards to this, i had stated in an earlier post that we NCB are on track to be the first bank to fully implement ecommerce, NCB is not to be blamed for the delay, as there are other major players in this game, with which we have to satisfy or await their input from, Cable and Wireless is one, mastercard and visa are the others.

Have you ever thought about how ecommerce works, and the factors neccessary to make it work - i will try to highlight some aspects which have held up the delivery of this service to customers - the main being how Jamaica's addressing system works, in Jamaica (cariibbean on a whole, addresses don't have a standard, i may live at 1000 Some Place and a man living in another parish miles from me may have an address of 1000 Some Place, addresses are not standardize in Jamaica, in America, there addresses system uses zip codes. Look how many times I have seen a man living in St. Ann having an address of say 10 Balmoral heights, and then a man in Kingston may have the same address 10 Balmoral Heights, of course you can see the confusion there, both addresses may appear to be the same.

How the Amercian ecommerce system works is by using a standard called AVV and CVV to verify the validity of a purchase. AVV is address verification and CVV is credit card verification, these are the standards that Mastercard and Visa adhere to and they are not sanctioning NCB as a gateway for Ecommerce for their cards as Jamaica is unable to meet the standards set for addresses, NCB can't be blamed for this, since mastercard and visa are the two main suppliers of credit cards and they are not issuing NCB licenses becuase of this, we are let out to dry and have to wait for the Government to implement a standard for how addresses are formulated in this country, unitl then, Ecommerce in Jamaica is a no, no, too much fraud could occur if it was to be launched now, NCB is currently the first bank to obtain a licence for CVV verification, indicating that we have satisified the standards for the CVV verification, but the AVV license is still outstanding, and this is the main verification used by the credit card giants.

Hope this sheds some light on the matter


AND SANDOR, i believe it is not fair to compare NCB of 1997 to the current NCB, the NCB then was owned by the government, we are now privately owned and have made countless efforts to regain our top rank in the market place, i believe doing that is like comparing the chicago bulls when jordan was around to the present chicago bulls, complete different pot of water.

[matronyx]

Chris, i believe that i did highlight some technological aspects to this discussion, such as which currently has the best I.T. Division, Internet Banking, ATMs, Any Branch Banking, these are some of the areas in which this discussion can be linked to Technology, i can also had another spin to this, does anyone know of the differnet technologies being utilized by the different banks,

NCB uses servers from Sun Microsystems and their new banking system was written in Java (JSP, Servlets so on). Also utilized heavily is UNIX, NT4.

languages most used to develop applications - Visual basic, crystal reports, cobol, asp, unix scripting, MRT - Maha Reporting Template, jsp, servlets


Cool, now I have all the info to hack into your systems... MU-HA-HA-HA-HAR!!!! ;)

[seanbee20]

I must admit, we do have a pretty secure establishment, not saying that it is unhackable, but it would take a pretty good hacker to do so.

[matronyx]

Ok guys, put this down as our June TechJamaica project:

DETERMINE How Secure NCB Is.

[Xenocrates]

DETERMINE How Secure NCB Is.


- r :D f l m a :D

[Chris]

Ok guys, put this down as our June TechJamaica project:

DETERMINE How Secure NCB Is.


Let's just take seanbee's word for it ;D. I can't afford legal defense against Lee-Chin valued at Can$1.7B :o.

[seanbee20]

Good advise Chris ;D

[Xenocrates]

Good advise Chris

- It's Advice not Advise. Advise is the verb. Advice is the noun. We don't want to mislead those reading this site who speak little english or set a bad example for the kiddies. Get it right man. ::)

[seanbee20]

Sorry, english teacher, i believe that we all went replyign to post, just type as quickly as we can, at times we don't even business about mis-spelling, but thanks for the correction

[matronyx]

- It's Advice not Advise. Advise is the verb. Advice is the noun. We don't want to mislead those reading this site who speak little english or set a bad example for the kiddies. Get it right man. ::)


You left out a comma.

It's Advice, not Advise. ;D

[Xenocrates]

Thank you Matronyx, I stand corrected. ;D