St. Vincent Co-operative Bank, commonly known as Penny Bank, will this month introduce monthly transaction fees on certain types of deposit accounts.
A notice posted at the bank, an indigenous financial institution, says that effective Aug. 31, 2017, deposit accounts will attract a monthly transaction fee of EC$10.
Senior customers and customers with loans will pay EC$5 per month.
There will be no monthly fees on fixed deposits and Penny Savers deposit accounts.
The bank said the fees are “in an effort to provide you with excellent customer service and control our costs”.
Last year, hundreds of persons withdrew their deposits and closed their accounts at RBTT after it introduced a monthly transaction fee of EC$25 on deposit accounts.
Financial experts say that many commercial banks in St. Vincent and the Grenadines are very liquid and a move by commercial banks to introduce transaction fees could be to offset costs.
They also say that the banks are hoping that the fees will deter smaller deposit accounts that are costly to maintain while generating minimal returns for the financial institution.