New­ly in­stalled pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce, Karen Yip Chuck, has said while cus­tomer con­cerns about the in­crease in the bank’s fees are valid, there has been a “com­plex and cost­ly en­vi­ron­ment” cre­at­ed by cyb­ser­cu­ri­ty con­cerns and reg­u­la­tions re­quired for an­ti-mon­ey laun­der­ing frame­works.

In re­sponse to a query from Guardian Me­dia, Yip Chuck said, “First­ly, it is en­tire­ly un­der­stand­able that busi­ness­es and in­di­vid­u­als are con­cerned about any in­crease in bank­ing fees. For mi­cro, small and medi­um-sized en­ter­pris­es in par­tic­u­lar, trans­ac­tion costs, over­draft charges and penal­ty fees can have a re­al im­pact on cash flows and day-to-day op­er­a­tions, es­pe­cial­ly in a chal­leng­ing eco­nom­ic en­vi­ron­ment.”

She con­tin­ued, “From the stand­point of the Cham­ber, these con­cerns are valid and should be heard. Trans­paren­cy, fair­ness, and clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion are es­sen­tial to main­tain­ing trust be­tween fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions and the com­mu­ni­ties they serve.”