ICB refutes allegations of witholding clients' remittances.
International Commercial Bank – ICB is refuting media reports that it is illegally holding on to remittances of some of its clients. The bank says some investigations are rather being carried out on some of these suspicious funds.
CEO, Sanjeev Anand tells Joy Business this is only due diligence in compliance with the nation's anti-money laundering laws.
“It's not every remittance that is investigated. It's only the suspicious ones. If it is very clearly mentioned that this is the purpose it's going to be used for then you know it's not necessary to be investigated".
It is only a few transactions which are suspicious based on the purpose its coming in. We don't want to discomfort the client in anyway but at the same time we want to ensure that we don't have suspect funds coming in”. he explained.
Mr Anand also dismisses allegations that the bank is short of foreign currency and that its customers are frustrated.
“We are not short of foreign currency. We have a retention limit. We do not retain our funds beyond a certain limit. So whatever excess funds we have we deposit with the Bank of Ghana and whenever we want to withdraw them we go ahead and do so. So at no point are we short of funds".
Its business as usual and no customer has suffered because of this situation” he concluded.
Story by Emmanuel Agyei / Nana Agyei Essuman - Joy Business