Ambah Urges Banks to Build Customers’ Trust

Eromosele Abiodun

Bankers have been called upon to take greater responsibility in all areas of their services in order to build consumer confidence and trust.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, FSDH Merchant Bank, Hamda Ambah, made the call during an interview with journalists on the sideline of the 45th Quarterly General Meeting of the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks (ACAEBIN) held in Lagos.

She said players should take responsibility by going all out to provide customers with the right information. She said the issue was about poor communication between banks and their customers, and therefore, “we have to take the responsibility to put out the right information.”

“Sometimes, the problem is misunderstanding for lack of the right information because in the absence of information, we get misinformation,” she added.

Ambah said: “you will see some elderly people who are not educated and they will give their ATM Cards to people they don’t even know. “Please my daughter, help me, this is the number. If the money now gets missing, is it really the banks fault? It’s not. But what we have to do is to take it as a responsibility to educate them that even if it is your child, don’t disclose your PIN number.”

According to her, this does not end with the non-educated, saying “I see some senior executives always giving their drivers or PA’s their ATM card to go and make withdrawals for them, instead of transferring the money to the person’s account so that he or she could use his or her own ATM cards.”

Speaking on theme of the ACAEBIN Meeting: ‘Consumer Protection and the Role of Internal Audit Executives of Banks ’, Ambah said the most basic, yet fundamental ingredient on which banking thrives was trust.