Cama faults National Bank KYC process

Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) yesterday expressed frustration with the manner Malawi Stock Exchange-listed National bank of Malawi (NBM) plc has handled its know your customer (KYC) activity underway nationwide.

Cama executive director John Kapito in an interview yesterday said the procedure used by the bank was frustrating to people as they were forced to spend long hours in the queue to update their personal details such as sources of income, place of residence or business and identification.

“There are usually few NBM staff assisting customers, leading to delays.  It would be better if they found the other way of carrying out the activity like doing it online,” he said.

Initially, NBM had set a deadline of July 10 2023, a situation that caused panic among customers and congestion in banking halls. However, the bank has since extended the deadline to August 31 2023.

The Nation spotchecks yesterday found that there was no space in NBM banking halls at service centres such as Chichiri, Chichiri Shopping Centre and Henderson Street in Blantyre.

In random interviews, one of the customers at Chichiri Service Centre, Joe Khambadza said the bank gave the clients a short notice about the activity and faulted the manner of communication.

“The bank could have communicated to us some time back with at least three months’ notice to ease the process. This activity has cost me so much time which I could have used productively at work,” he said.

Another customer, Sophie Mkweteza complained about spending over four hours in the queue after the service centre ran out of forms.

Customers in some service centres in Northern and Central regions also endured the same challenges.

Eunice Kaimila, a customer at Capital City Service Centre in Lilongwe, said she did not receive the information about the activity on time, leading to the inconvenience and panic yesterday.

In Karonga, Orpah Mtegha said she was sent back due to insufficient documents required for the activity.

“When I first came, I did not know what documents to carry for the activity. As a result, I was not allowed to update my account because I did not bring with me the national ID,” she said.

In a statement released last evening, NBM said only customers that have not provided the KYC information in the last three years need to do so. However, the detail about the period was lacking in the bank’s initial communication to customers.

Customers residing abroad or unable to visit the service centre in person can submit their information online, said the bank.