David Buttigieg de Piro, Rabat
A week is too long in banking
Why is it, when we boast about our IT infrastructure and banking sector and multi-national banks and all that hot air, that it takes almost a week, yes a week, for Maltese banks to “clear” another Maltese bank’s cheque?
The same thing applies to the internet banking Maltese banks boast about and charge us for. If you transfer funds through internet banking to an account in another bank it takes a week. A week! Unbelievable.
Would somebody kindly explain this and, please, a real explanation, not a lot of passing the buck or lame excuses!
Is it possible Maltese banks are so inefficient?
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Ian Galea
Sep 13th 2010, 14:44
"If you transfer funds through internet banking to an account in another bank it takes a week. A week! Unbelievable." Plus you have to pay 4 euros as a charge for something that is done electronically!!!
Christopher Ripard
Sep 13th 2010, 14:29
Maybe you need to change your bank, David. My transfers over the 'net to a different bank go through next working day. I have also transferred funds several times to the other side of the world (Australia) and that took 3 - 5 days. It's called 'competition'.
adrian agius
Sep 13th 2010, 13:34
speaking about cash,,,, can somebody please explain to me if malta government stocks can fluctuate in price ot not. I bought MGS 5.7% 2012 stocks in 2007 and i've been told that these stocks are worth a 3rd of their original price!!! Is it true????
Andrew Azzopardi
Sep 13th 2010, 17:55
Mr Agius, if you click on 'Bonds' on the left, you can check the current price of your bonds. The last trade was on 10 September and the price was €107.75. So if you had bought at par, you stand to make a small tax-free killing.
K Zammit
Sep 13th 2010, 09:15
Mr Buttigieg de Piro, contrary to what you think it is not only in Malta that cheques take so long to clear. This sanction is put in place to protect the bank in case of bouncing cheques, HSBC in England takes up to 8 days to clear a cheque if I recall correctly, so I don't get why you said this about banks in Malta only. It is a well-used practice throughout many countries.
David Buttigieg de Piro
Sep 13th 2010, 10:00
Dear Mr Zammit,
Are you telling me, that on this little Island of ours, it takes a whole week to process a cheque and see if fund are available to honour it?
Quite frankly, go and tell it to the marines!
Peter Phillips
Sep 13th 2010, 10:19
The delay is so that the Banks can make money on the interest that they earn whilst the money is in that transistional state. If the money is not in your account as you've written and cheque/transfer and it isn't in the recipents account then neither get the interest that can be earned. The longer the delay the more money the bank can make.