Compass – Muhammad Saad

The Central Bank of Jordan confirmed that the decision not to impose any fees or commissions on the bank’s main account outside those stipulated in the relevant instructions is “binding” on all banks operating in Jordan.

In the circular it published last week, the central bank called for a study to avoid observations that appeared during a questionnaire conducted by the bank to measure the level of customer satisfaction of the main bank account.

The bank published notes received in the questionnaire for customers of the main bank account in dealing with licensed banks. Which is that some ATM cards do not work in the branches of the bank issuing the card, while they work in other banks.

The basic bank account represents a bank account with low costs, so that it is available to the segments of society who do not have bank accounts and wish to deal with banks within limits and costs commensurate with their income and capabilities.

Also among the observations is the closure of the account without informing the customer in advance, and the existence of some technical problems in some ATMs.

also added; It was observed that customers did not receive notifications when withdrawing or depositing, or when transfers were received from the Ministry of Social Development, in addition to the lack of electronic banking services and electronic payment services such as paying water and electricity bills and the Click service.

Also note the questionnaire; Delay in receiving transfers, and deducting a commission of (1) dinars on cash withdrawals from the branch, noting that the commission is 500 fils for each withdrawal after exceeding the maximum number of operations (two monthly withdrawals for free).

It was also noticed that a commission (one dinar – one and a half dinars) was deducted when transferring National Aid dues to the customer’s account.

For his part, the economic expert, Muhammad al-Bashir, confirmed in his statements to “compass“The instructions of the Central Bank directed to banks regarding some errors and deductions that constitute inconvenience to citizens and constrain them, in addition to their violation of the regulations in force in Jordanian banks, although they came late, but they are good as a beginning for the return of a more effective role for the Central Bank in the Jordanian economic scene.

Al-Bashir said that the Central Bank must be the protector of all depositors and their money and contribute to mitigating the severity of the instructions issued by banks, most of which are harsh instructions with regard to dealing with current accounts, facility cards and other deductions from frozen accounts and others.

He also demanded the necessity of reviewing the instructions issued by the banks, especially those related to the interests that are given for interest, and what is imposed on borrowing, and the large gap between them.

He stressed the need to deal with the funds held by banks as “the monetary mass owned by the Jordanian state, and it is not permissible to leave the banks to dispose of them as they wish, which shows the huge difference between the margin of debit and credit expenses with banks.

He pointed out that the Central Bank is dealing with some problems and solving them through the electronic window that it provides to citizens, but at the same time it must make it a window of information about what is going on inside a number of banks in terms of abuses and violations.

Al-Bashir said, “It is true that some banks adhere to the instructions, but some violations are related to their branches more than they are in the central departments.”

He noted that the dinar and half of the dinar that the bank deducts from the citizen in the form of deductions affects him economically in a negative way, and therefore banks must take into account the difficult economic conditions of people and the problems they suffer from.

He concluded by sending a message to the country’s financial decision makers, saying: The Central Bank must intervene strongly and decisively to defend the interests of Jordanian depositors as their agent and protector of their interests, especially since financial transactions have become mostly electronic and not paper as they were in the past, which makes the discounts imposed by the bank on The citizen is unrealistic, especially after the spread of financial platforms, applications and services on mobile devices and the Internet.