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redmanjp wrote:https://newsday.co.tt/2019/12/15/proof-of-address/Proof of address
I laundered $1,700 this week.
Serious! Come arrest me, nah.
Actually I could have turned myself in. I was at a meeting the day before and after on nonprofits washing terrorist money, hobnobbing with the heads of the FIU and Anti-Terrorism Unit. It’s a small country! Whose size, development and lingering orderliness give us an opportunity to create people-centred policy, as policymakers aren’t hopelessly distant from small people and everyday life.
I waited over two hours at a bank, amid the horde lined up to swap old paper money for shiny plastic notes, whose cost to taxpayers seems some sort of state secret those we elected need to withhold from us.
The minimum-wage security guard in front me, on break from her shift, was counting her Christmas-season earnings decline with every minute in the line. Banks aren’t open when she’s off work. She’d stood in even longer banklines the day before for a different transaction. (This bank – and I’m not aware of any other – hasn’t thought to simply separate people, like me, there for routine business from the influx of withdrawn-banknote-redeemers.)
After an hour and a half, her counterpart at the bank, another woman, who viscerally gets this cost, came and skipped her to the head of the line. No one objected; though I imagine she’d get punished for that act of empathy if I shamed the bank by name.
Guardlady lost maybe $26.25 waiting, saved $17.50 – sums that mean far less to many others in the line.
Or not. A lawyer scoffed at my story: his old aunt asked him to line up to change a few thousand for her; no need to, he’d dispense with that cash in normal Christmas spending.
The visual contrasts and similarities were striking between these two women in their demeaning-by-design, ill-fitting uniforms and three unfashionably dressed young Indian men, each with a moxy lunchbag once full of cash, who spent most of the time I did in line at one window, chatting together, while someone at the bank was likely figuring out what to do with them.
Behind me was a woman teaching in the East. She passed some of the time chatting with a colleague who’d been ahead of us in line. He’d come from Arima to Port of Spain, not on his own business, but to support an unwell colleague, sharing turns waiting in line.
These are the differential costs to the public – and the economy – of the $100-note demonetisation measure government leaders have forced on the nation over the coming two weeks, as the Finance Minister openly admits, without having figured out, despite four years’ planning, how to cross several Is or dot a number of Ts. It’s an anti-laundering initiative they’ve half sold to the large number of us with bank accounts, credit cards, cars, flexible time, whom it shouldn’t inconvenience terribly.
Though, in my experience, it actually has. I’d avoided joining the bandwagon of naysayers for whom no authority ever gets the benefit of the doubt, rolling my eyes at the Maha Sabha’s latest lawsuit – even posting on Facebook congratulating one bank for customer responsive measures and effective communication about them.
Imagine that, eh. Me who lives to cuss and carry on in banking halls at the outrage of their profitability and utter disregard for customer orientation.
Ah, but soon enough I got to do the usual. My two hours finally got me to the head of the line. And all my reasonableness vanished.
First I got told the department for the transaction I’d arrived within banking hours to complete was now closed – too bad I’d waited so long. I couldn’t get foreign currency for my trip the next day.
Two relatives abroad had given me some small money – one eight $100 bills, another nine – they said I could either spend here before they lost value or change and bring back for them when I travelled. So I decided, let me at least do that.
I handed the teller the 17 notes wordlessly. She knew why we were all here. She looked up, asking politely what I wanted to do.
Swap them.
You can deposit them to an account and withdraw cash in new notes; or if you want to swap them you must provide a utility bill as proof of address. Regardless of amount. And ID.
And no driver’s permit that has an address (where Government is going to mail traffic tickets that will be legally delivered) – only a passport or an EBC card.
Where were the clear public notices or media reports explaining this stupidity to small people? Homeless people? It’s in the Bankers Association ad, she assured. I used an O in my social-media expletive; no polite British/American U would do.
I deposited my relatives’ paper notes in my nonprofit’s business account, and took out polymer cash. That is the definition of money laundering.
And I’m looking to join Vijay Maharaj’s lawsuit. Yesterday Colin Robinson
A172 wrote:airport cambio taking old bills
great way to get rid of all your all old bills before deadline
SMc wrote:redmanjp wrote:https://newsday.co.tt/2019/12/15/proof-of-address/Proof of address
I laundered $1,700 this week.
Serious! Come arrest me, nah.
Actually I could have turned myself in. I was at a meeting the day before and after on nonprofits washing terrorist money, hobnobbing with the heads of the FIU and Anti-Terrorism Unit. It’s a small country! Whose size, development and lingering orderliness give us an opportunity to create people-centred policy, as policymakers aren’t hopelessly distant from small people and everyday life.
I waited over two hours at a bank, amid the horde lined up to swap old paper money for shiny plastic notes, whose cost to taxpayers seems some sort of state secret those we elected need to withhold from us.
The minimum-wage security guard in front me, on break from her shift, was counting her Christmas-season earnings decline with every minute in the line. Banks aren’t open when she’s off work. She’d stood in even longer banklines the day before for a different transaction. (This bank – and I’m not aware of any other – hasn’t thought to simply separate people, like me, there for routine business from the influx of withdrawn-banknote-redeemers.)
After an hour and a half, her counterpart at the bank, another woman, who viscerally gets this cost, came and skipped her to the head of the line. No one objected; though I imagine she’d get punished for that act of empathy if I shamed the bank by name.
Guardlady lost maybe $26.25 waiting, saved $17.50 – sums that mean far less to many others in the line.
Or not. A lawyer scoffed at my story: his old aunt asked him to line up to change a few thousand for her; no need to, he’d dispense with that cash in normal Christmas spending.
The visual contrasts and similarities were striking between these two women in their demeaning-by-design, ill-fitting uniforms and three unfashionably dressed young Indian men, each with a moxy lunchbag once full of cash, who spent most of the time I did in line at one window, chatting together, while someone at the bank was likely figuring out what to do with them.
Behind me was a woman teaching in the East. She passed some of the time chatting with a colleague who’d been ahead of us in line. He’d come from Arima to Port of Spain, not on his own business, but to support an unwell colleague, sharing turns waiting in line.
These are the differential costs to the public – and the economy – of the $100-note demonetisation measure government leaders have forced on the nation over the coming two weeks, as the Finance Minister openly admits, without having figured out, despite four years’ planning, how to cross several Is or dot a number of Ts. It’s an anti-laundering initiative they’ve half sold to the large number of us with bank accounts, credit cards, cars, flexible time, whom it shouldn’t inconvenience terribly.
Though, in my experience, it actually has. I’d avoided joining the bandwagon of naysayers for whom no authority ever gets the benefit of the doubt, rolling my eyes at the Maha Sabha’s latest lawsuit – even posting on Facebook congratulating one bank for customer responsive measures and effective communication about them.
Imagine that, eh. Me who lives to cuss and carry on in banking halls at the outrage of their profitability and utter disregard for customer orientation.
Ah, but soon enough I got to do the usual. My two hours finally got me to the head of the line. And all my reasonableness vanished.
First I got told the department for the transaction I’d arrived within banking hours to complete was now closed – too bad I’d waited so long. I couldn’t get foreign currency for my trip the next day.
Two relatives abroad had given me some small money – one eight $100 bills, another nine – they said I could either spend here before they lost value or change and bring back for them when I travelled. So I decided, let me at least do that.
I handed the teller the 17 notes wordlessly. She knew why we were all here. She looked up, asking politely what I wanted to do.
Swap them.
You can deposit them to an account and withdraw cash in new notes; or if you want to swap them you must provide a utility bill as proof of address. Regardless of amount. And ID.
And no driver’s permit that has an address (where Government is going to mail traffic tickets that will be legally delivered) – only a passport or an EBC card.
Where were the clear public notices or media reports explaining this stupidity to small people? Homeless people? It’s in the Bankers Association ad, she assured. I used an O in my social-media expletive; no polite British/American U would do.
I deposited my relatives’ paper notes in my nonprofit’s business account, and took out polymer cash. That is the definition of money laundering.
And I’m looking to join Vijay Maharaj’s lawsuit. Yesterday Colin Robinson
Not dissimilar to what happened to me last week, except i was on the other end of the stick.
I went to Republic Bank last Friday to change what 100's I had-not much only about 3K. I was in line for about an hour before I reached the front which wasnt a problem for me as I put aside way more time than that. When in the line I bounce a partner girlfrried and we were talking as we went through.
When I got to the counter they asked for ID (which I had), source of funds (whch I had-though I dont know why they needed it for that amount) and a utility bill (which I didnt have as I dont have one in my name) but I did have proof of address-> I get blank and told to go to Central Bank to exchange- asked for a supervisor to give some input-same rhetoric.
Told my partner girfriend I get blank-she then put the money through on her account, plus another girl (who neither of us knew) who was in the same situation as me through the teller next to the first one I encountered.
At the end of it all, everyone got their stuff done, but If I wasnt lucky enough to know someone in the line I would still possibly cathing my arse to change the money as I wont get a utility bill in my name over the next few weeks even if I tried.
I dont know why it has to be so difficult for such a simple transaction-if the CB or Government put somthing in place that the Banking sector struggling with, dont penalise the average person-> push back to the people in semi-charge and ask for support.
Anyway, money changed and all is now well until the next fiasco.
RBC worker’s body found in Arima
The body of a woman was found at Demerara Road, Pinto, Arima, on Tuesday afternoon.
Police said the woman, identified as Roma Mohansingh aka Roma Lamont, 28, was found just after 1 pm by passers by who called the Arima police.
Investigators said Mohansingh was believed to be working with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).
Her body bore no visible marks of violence.
death365 wrote:Perhaps you need to understand situational analysis.... But ah guess u is ah trini so thats out the window...
My bad.... Go back being unknowingly ignorant
SERPENTINE frozen queues, fainting elderly, countless hours lost, confusion and fear; there are few things we do better than chaos in Trini.
Last week saw yet another example of this Government’s penchant for pointless pandemonium. A demonetisation exercise triggered bedlam across the country.
Some complained bitterly that the changeover was executed without any planning whatsoever. That, however, isn’t true. The fact that the bills arrived a day after demonetisation of the $100 bill was announced shows the change was in the offing for quite some.
Quite predictably, government supporters ravaged critics of the ensuing demonetisation fallout, demonising them as criminal-loving bellyachers. Anyone put out by long lines and uncertainty over the availability of the new polymer notes doesn’t want the authorities to clamp down on money launderers, drug barons and murderers. Trinis didn’t want to put up with “a little inconvenience” for the greater good
Our people flaunt their binary thought processes like a front-section masquerader in a Carnival band. You either want to combat crime or you don’t. If you aren’t a criminal you shouldn’t have any problems. If you complain about the chaotic process, you are against demonetisation. You claiming the economy is dead but you lining up to deposit yuh millions. This country is in too precarious a state to countenance such wanton stupidity.
I haven’t come across a single objection to swapping out the old $100 bills for the more robust polymer notes. If it puts a spoke in counterfeiters’ wheel and gelds criminals posing on Facebook with piles of cash, that’s fantastic. If gambling machines can’t ingest the new notes and parlour punters instead have to go home to their families, hallelujah! Most of the complaints, from my reading of it hinge on the poor handling of the process.
For starters, the currency change was conducted like a national security operation rather than the implementation of monetary policy. Presumably, the Government believed secrecy and the tight deadline for the changeover of old bills would “catch” criminals, as they would be netted sauntering into banks with wheelbarrows filled with cash.
As the authorities are well aware, there is an entire sub-economy enabling underworld figures to convert their ill-gotten gains into gold, properties and business investments. This they can accomplish without having to go anywhere near a bank.
A fair portion of their money will be lost, true. The more enterprising zessers, though, will be up and running in no time, posing on stacks of polymer notes. Moreover, the puppeteers of these local criminals, the human traffickers and international drug syndicates trade in US currency, not TT dollars, so they will be untouched by demonetisation.
That’s not to say it shouldn’t have been done. Again, concerns centre on the “how,” not the why. No one should have been surprised at the cultural disconnect exhibited by the Government.
Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi couldn’t see what the fuss was all about. Just go and deposit the money. Use your credit card or debit card. This, coming from a man who probably sleeps in Savile Row pyjamas. It’s difficult for politicians removed from the people to understand that there are citizens with a deep distrust for banks. As such, they have nothing to do with them.
The AG assumes every pensioner has a bank card and a credit card. People at that level of governance should know many older people aren’t comfortable using technology. Additionally, confronting an older person in a bank with a source-of-funds form to explain life savings that were, only moments before, deposited in a Sealy Posturepedic account is a recipe for panic.
The sea bridge crisis, the Venezuelan registration debacle, the vehicle inspection sticker bacchanal, the calamitous shuttering of Petrotrin; these are just a few highlights of crises engineered through political spitefulness, mismanagement, and good old-fashioned incompetence.
The Government has become an agent of chaos. Through acts of omission and ill-considered decisions, citizens have suffered much more than a mere inconvenience. Businesses have been wounded, lives upended and already weak productivity further diminished.
People must stop processing government ineptitude through their political prism. We are so blinded by cancerous political allegiances we can only see the forest for the opposition.
The botched demonetisation is just one in a series of avoidable missteps. These bungles all form links in a chain at the end of which is an anchor dragging us to the depths. Perhaps you can guess what the anchor is in this overwrought analogy. 2 Days Ago
Paolo Kernahan
maj. tom wrote:This has been covered already a few pages back. There have been no counterfeit polymer $100 bills so far that could pass by even a blind person. They printed it on paper and it was an utter failure.
took me a while..aaron17 wrote:One of my family say they get extra 100 new money.from atm..paper to thin? He aint complaining tho
aaron17 wrote:One of my family say they get extra 100 new money.from atm..paper to thin? He aint complaining tho
PariaMan wrote:Which ATM ?
Asking for friendaaron17 wrote:One of my family say they get extra 100 new money.from atm..paper to thin? He aint complaining tho
Foreigners with old hundreds have to comply with December 31 deadline
Foreigners and Trinidad and Tobago citizens living abroad who are in possession of the old hundred dollar bills will have to comply with the December 31 deadline to get them changed.
Nicole Crooks, senior manager of human resources and knowledge management of Central Bank, said in some cases, there would be those who would qualify for the three-month extension to change the old bills to the new polymer notes but that is not guaranteed.
She pointed to section eight of the FAQs on the Central Bak's website which said:
"As provided for in Section 27A. (4) of the Central Bank Act Chap. 79:02, the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago will facilitate the exchange of the paper notes for the new polymer notes within the period of three months after December 31, 2019 (deadline date) if the Central Bank is satisfied that the failure to present the notes for redemption prior to the deadline date resulted from circumstances beyond the control of the true owner of the notes or that there was some other good or sufficient reason for the failure to present the notes. Examples of what constitutes good and sufficient reason will be published in due course and would include specific situations of persons who provide acceptable evidence of being out of Trinidad and Tobago during the period December 9, 2019 and December 31, 2019, and thus unable to be physically present in the country during that period to deposit the paper notes or exchange the paper notes for the new polymer notes."
Crooks was responding to comments on a Facebook page operated by the Tobago Tourism Authority where people were querying what to do with the old bills they still had in their possession.
“I've just exchanged some money in London ahead of a trip to Tobago in the new year but I've been given the old notes which will not be legal tender when I arrive - what can I do? It seems to be a really tight timeline between issuing the new notes and discontinuing the old ones,” said one woman.
Another said: “I was only in Tobago in November and knew nothing about it until I returned to the UK. I don’t return to Tobago until June and I always bring notes back with me ready for the return trip. I can see from other comments that there’s a 3-month extension for those out of the country but it’ll be 6 months before I get there. Frustrating.”
Crooks said the Central Bank will assess those who could not meet the December 31 deadline on a case by case basis.
For those foreigners who will be in Tobago before that deadline, the Central Bank set up operations on the sister isle that the UTC building to facilitate residents and others with old hundred dollar bills to change.
Crooks was unable to say if the staff would be available on the island after December 31.
“We would have made a decision to do that now. It is not likely to happen after,” she said.
Crooks could not comment on those who said banks in their countries are refusing to accept the old bills and do not have the new polymer notes.
She said Central Bank is only dealing with the T&T financial system.
http://www.looptt.com/content/foreigner ... 1-deadline
maj. tom wrote:So foreigners... hard luck. Your TT$$$ invalid. Apparently you have to buy a plane ticket to Trinidad at peak travel winter season by Dec 30 to reach here and change your money. This is the greatest PNM vision yet for this country. Every week is a new story with this new money. Now the CBTT not taking it after Dec 31. Don't even start to think about all the visitors who have money put away to return for Carnival. All these TT citizen living abroad who does carry up a lil $5000 so when they return they have cash in this shithole country. All that money invalid at Dec 31. This is PNM country.Foreigners with old hundreds have to comply with December 31 deadline
Foreigners and Trinidad and Tobago citizens living abroad who are in possession of the old hundred dollar bills will have to comply with the December 31 deadline to get them changed.
Nicole Crooks, senior manager of human resources and knowledge management of Central Bank, said in some cases, there would be those who would qualify for the three-month extension to change the old bills to the new polymer notes but that is not guaranteed.
She pointed to section eight of the FAQs on the Central Bak's website which said:
"As provided for in Section 27A. (4) of the Central Bank Act Chap. 79:02, the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago will facilitate the exchange of the paper notes for the new polymer notes within the period of three months after December 31, 2019 (deadline date) if the Central Bank is satisfied that the failure to present the notes for redemption prior to the deadline date resulted from circumstances beyond the control of the true owner of the notes or that there was some other good or sufficient reason for the failure to present the notes. Examples of what constitutes good and sufficient reason will be published in due course and would include specific situations of persons who provide acceptable evidence of being out of Trinidad and Tobago during the period December 9, 2019 and December 31, 2019, and thus unable to be physically present in the country during that period to deposit the paper notes or exchange the paper notes for the new polymer notes."
Crooks was responding to comments on a Facebook page operated by the Tobago Tourism Authority where people were querying what to do with the old bills they still had in their possession.
“I've just exchanged some money in London ahead of a trip to Tobago in the new year but I've been given the old notes which will not be legal tender when I arrive - what can I do? It seems to be a really tight timeline between issuing the new notes and discontinuing the old ones,” said one woman.
Another said: “I was only in Tobago in November and knew nothing about it until I returned to the UK. I don’t return to Tobago until June and I always bring notes back with me ready for the return trip. I can see from other comments that there’s a 3-month extension for those out of the country but it’ll be 6 months before I get there. Frustrating.”
Crooks said the Central Bank will assess those who could not meet the December 31 deadline on a case by case basis.
For those foreigners who will be in Tobago before that deadline, the Central Bank set up operations on the sister isle that the UTC building to facilitate residents and others with old hundred dollar bills to change.
Crooks was unable to say if the staff would be available on the island after December 31.
“We would have made a decision to do that now. It is not likely to happen after,” she said.
Crooks could not comment on those who said banks in their countries are refusing to accept the old bills and do not have the new polymer notes.
She said Central Bank is only dealing with the T&T financial system.
http://www.looptt.com/content/foreigner ... 1-deadline
vaiostation wrote:Anybody keeping any old $100 for souvenirs?
These Guidelines provide some examples of the circumstances that the Central Bank would consider appropriate for redemption of the $100 cotton notes in the three month period after January 1, 2020.
1. Commercial banks in Trinidad and Tobago will be afforded a reasonable time period, determined in consultation with the Central Bank, to consolidate from their branches the $100 cotton notes that they have collected from the public in the period up to December 31, 2019 and redeem them at the Central Bank.
2. The Central Government maintains accounts at the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.To facilitate the collection of taxes and other revenue up to December 31, 2019, the Government’s deposits of $100 cotton notes will be accepted at the Central Bank for a period to be determined.
3. In order to facilitate efficient and secure transfer of deposits by merchants/organizations who may collect $100 cotton notes on December 31, 2019, commercial banks will be allowed to accept deposits of these notes from merchants/organizations on January 2 and 3, 2020 for redemption at the Central Bank. Please note that merchants/organizations should verify before December 31, 2019 with their banks that they will be prepared to accept the full deposits, taking into account Sources of Funds requirements and other considerations. The Central Bank will not be accepting these $100 cotton notes after December 31, 2019 from merchants/organizations in this category.
4. Individuals who are hospitalized, incapacitated, out of the country, or unable for legal or other demonstrably serious reasons to deposit or exchange the $100 cotton notes should come to the Central Bank with valid identification, proof of address and source of funds, and documentary evidence of inability to convert by December 31, 2019. Persons will be required to sign a form containing a statutory declaration verifying the information provided and attesting that they are aware that they can be prosecuted if they knowingly provide misinformation in order to mislead the Central Bank. Please note that all information provided will be subject to verification and follow up by the law enforcement agencies.
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