Mr. Turnquest

If and when the FNM become the government you will need to shut your mouth because RBC are the main bankers and primary lenders to the Government of the Bahamas.

We have sold our souls to them so they feel entitled to rape thousands of Bahamian with outrageous bank charges. Lol...besides Bahamians don't complain, no one is reading the Tribune blogs, you can do whatever you like with them.

In the last 18 months our national debt has increased from $5.5b to $6.3b (70% GDP). The government will need the full corporation of RBC when every last Bahamian citizen wakes up one morning to find their money worth 0.70US$. Please don't expect any warning.

Majority rule? What a joke.

Thanks Lionfish

I just read your earlier post which reflects precisely what occurred to thousands of RBC current account clients in the Bahamas. But after banking at RBC for 40 years and having owned their Canadian stock which trades on the Toronto stock exchange I was determined to not allow them to run me out of this globally reputable institution because no one could be bothered to act ethically or efficiently. You should have stayed with RBC and fought the bad customer service and their senior management which need to be fired. If we as Bahamian keep running we will soon be driven into the sea by foreigners and our government. When the sun goes down ya better be locked up in ya house, the middle class is now endangered.

Canadians have joined the Chinese and other foreign investors to rape Bahamians - facilitated by Bahamian lawyers and politicians. Baha Mar closed down, Airport fees are so high that Jet Blues has expressed concern to our government that their routs to Ft Lauderdale. Cable and Wireless say they are going to layoff Bahamians - can't wait for Cable Bahamas cell phone service so I can drop my BTC cell phone, PowerCorp - a third rate US corporation taking over BEC - what a joke.

My checking account fees jumped from $15 per month to $65 per month. I was out of the Country and I spent 2 hours trying to speak with someone at my branch and could not get past the receptionist. They said the Account Officer was not available and the Manager had to manage 2 branches at the same time.

When I got back to the Bahamas I waited 2 hours in the line at my branch to speak with someone who did not even understand that the Schedule of Fees had changed and the bank had illegally switched the fees without informing their clients. I told them that I was an international banker and they would not get away with this fraud anywhere else in the developed world.

I was about to close my account with RBC when my wife told me not to close the account with a bank and that we had banked with RBC for 40 years. She said this is a Canadian bank which is headquartered in a developed country which had rules and regulations and it was not a banana republic bank like the Bahamas.

So I called Canada and told them about the outrageous fees, the long lines, the lack of proper ACH online banking facilities which makes banking in the Bahamas backwards (you can't even transfer money online to someone in another bank - 19th century banking - if we could transfer money to someone else in another bank online then the time, car gas and energy wasted by waiting in lines at a bank branch would be eliminated but neither the Canadian banks, the bay street boys, the east street boys or the government thinks that the time of its citizens is worth anything so we wait in lines for hours each week). Canada seemed amazed that their local wholly owned subsidiary would be associated with such dreadful third world backward practices and directed me to their website to make a complaint and told me to call their headquarters in Nassau. I told them that the complaints website in the Bahamas was not working. I told them that I was a shareholder in RBC globally for decades and I found them to be a very ethical institution over the decades. However in the Bahamas, customer were being ripped off.

The Central Bank of the Bahamas does not care, the government of the Bahamas does not care and neither is their any consumer protection agency to stop institutional theft from poor people.

I then called the head office in Nassau, as directed by Toronto, in Nassau they tried to put me to the voicemail of their regional head. I told the receptionist please don't put me to voice mail of the regional head because no one at this institution returns calls.

After 6 hours of perseverance they reversed the illegal $65 of charges. I was determined not to let bad customer service run me. If I keep running where would I end up?

All RBC customers need to check their bank accounts for the last 2 months and see just how much their fees have increased.

Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy.

He mussy left one zero of dat number - I tink he meaning $600 million. But I'ain give up hope cause we had some "teachable moments" wit Bamsi, COB, BEC bribe, Hospital and Urban Renew. But ain nuttin change my bro cause da same peoples dem go be in charge.

But i'ain sure. Cause once da boys dem get dey contract, da workers dem ga get real mad as dey ain ga paid dem. Den in 2017 da government dem ga change den da next set a boys ga cancel all da contract and get dey boys - dem red set worser dan des yellow set. But errybody mad wit do yellow set. By 2025 da islands dem will be back ta normal.

All dat VAT monies gone. Foreigners dem ga downgrade us fa sure.

I tink dey should ge da contract to HeadKnowles dem. Dey look like dey knows what de doin. An da ain ask fa no contract yet. Well muddos.

Which international audit firm will sign off on the Bank of the Bahamas' financial statements if they are taking in funds from unlicensed web shops? The other paper reported a possible $300/$400m hole in their financial statements. If this rumor turns out to have any truth then a further injection of capital will be required.

The webshops will not increase taxes but they will become a growing burden on the public both socially and reputationally (unlicensed and possible money laundering).

Coupled with hurricane relief and corruption the deficit will soar well above 7 billion before end of year. Devaluation next.

The reason the administration is worried about money is because they do not have a vision on how to resolve the problems neither do they have any idea exactly what the problem is. They talk amongst themselves including the opposition which seem just as clueless.

Problem. These devastating floods/hurricanes are unpredictable 100 year events which can occur in 2020 even if we just experienced one this year.

Problem. No vision. Same lousy solutions decade in and decade out. The southern islands will be rebuilt one by one despite global warming which has most of the Bahamian chain underwater in 200 years.

Problem. BEC will rebuild the same lousy above ground electricity distribution poles which can be blown down next year. Instead of putting the electricity underground due to cost. Watch the contractors and conflicts of interest very carefully.

Problem. We can no longer afford to have numerous settlements scattered all over the south and expect for all of them to have electricity, water, cable, proper transportation (air and sea), good education, healthcare and an "anchor project" each all courtesy of the government - we are selling pie in the sky. The cost of operating the southern islands is compounded by greed, theft, corruption, nepotism and a geriatric administration.

Solution. Consolidate the majority of the southern population on an island which is well above sea level. Build a new city of the south. Stop taking all of their VAT, duty, license fees etc. to Nassau to be wasted. Let the funds from the south be spent in the south. Let the south young people determine its own future.

Unfortunately none of this will occur. The educational system in these islands is so poor most people may not actually comprehend their true predicament.

The relief effort is excellent but if we don't learn anything from the disaster and stop rebuilding out of wood, in low lying areas, in very small settlements, with exposed electrical networks, diesel BEC generators and centralised government then we should expect the same results.

Remember Bamsi, $500,000 school room, BEC bribe to purchase inferior generators causing untold cost to the public, VAT implementation with no spending accountability, gas prices remain stubbornly high despite going down to $2 per gallon in the US, BEC bills not going down with lower diesel costs, building prices up by over 50% duty to VAT layering, government slow in paying out VAT reimbursements, numbers shops opened without any licenses and against the people's will, Baha Mar staff payments of $5m per month, now hundreds of millions need to be spent to rebuild the southern bahamas. S&P will downgrade us to junk and we will need to devalue the currency.

The businesses should not complain. They have increased their first cost by over 15% to cover the VAT on import and the VAT at the point of sale. They should not be out of pocket. I see their stores still full of people.

The government is broke and will need to use the refund money for hurricane relief for the Southern Islands.

Also the government will need the extra money for the national health insurance scheme. As taxes are not being raised the money has to come from somewhere. The businesses are the best ones to take the loss. Poor people have no money left after paying VAt.

Yes, like the 25% we own in Bank of the Bahamas.

Liquidators get paid first but their fees will run into the tens of millions of dollars. No budget, no cap, no performance based pay. Large liquidations are an accountant's dream.

What makes this liquidation fascinating is the conflicted signals that they are sending out. In all liquidations the first thing the liquidators woudl do is close down the operation to preserve shareholder value. However largely because of the "to big to fail" political syndrome this white elephant will stay open. Why would the liquidators want to pay staff if they are not working? Why would the liquidators want to pay the insurance of an obviously unprofitable hotel? Why would the liquidators want to get the contractor in to complete the hotel if the ownership may transfer from the current developer to the bank? Why would the bank want to pay to complete the project? Is the bank going to own the project and why?

The reason is that this project is not simply a business but it has a local political and geopolitical face. If the project fails then both government administrations have failed, both are to blame for over weighting the economics to one investment. Our relations with the east become strained. Both administrations are guilty of acting as simpletons thinking that one anchor project can be the saviour of an entire country.

We are seeing this simplistic thinking permeated with the transfer of the management of BEC to foreigners, government ownership in BTC, delusional thinking that Bamsi will feed the country, government's requirement for 51% ownership in the next cell phone license etc. etc. All of these projects will fail as political interference and personal interest take precedence over the best interest of the people.