Bahamas Press Sunday Special…

Canada – CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank is about to hit thousands of its customers with a dramatic change in their relationship.

The bank has told customers it is going to outsource all lending, account and client information from all its banks in the region to third parties in another country who will now be processing it.

In addition, the bank said it wanted to change all the contractual arrangements that clients originally signed, to allow the bank to “unilaterally change any of the terms of [your] account opening agreement or any other of its agreement with [you] applicable to interest rates, fees, charges, or overdraft limits at any time in the future; and such changes will deemed to have been unequivocally accepted by [you].”

In a letter signed by Mark St Hill, managing director for retail, wealth, businesses and international banking, when it came to fees, he said: “The bank may change applicable fees, charges, overdraft limits at any time in the future and notify [you] by any means of public or private notification.”

The bank said the changes for account agreements and fees will become effective after 30 days of the date that the notice is mailed or published, and it will be deemed to have been “unequivocally accepted” by customers. –