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• toko

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  Kyrgyz Ecobank has problems with money transfers?

  Kyrgyz Ecobank has recently entered the list of the largest 1000 banks in CIS (988 place which is in the bottom*). The bank is used by many Kyrgyz abroad to send money home to support their ageing parents, children and relatives. There are currently over 700 000 Kyrgyz citizens working abroad, most of them are in Russia .However the number of mini scandals in Kyrgyzstan has been damaging Ecobank’s popularity among Kyrgyz ex-pats.

  In one case, a Kyrgyz citizen in London sent money home via Ecobank (using Unistream transfer system) to one of the branches in the capital Bishkek but her mother did not get the money. The trick is simple: a person who comes for money goes to a cashier to sign the papers then she is sent to a different cashier (usually located in a different room) to get money. This is when money can have ‘wings’.

  When the old woman went to get the money she was told that the number was wrong and she was asked to check it with her daughter. With no back thoughts she went home to check the number and then her daughter sent the transfer number again. Surprisingly the number was absolutely correct! Anyway the woman was sent home TWO times because of the wrong number. When the old woman realised that there was something wrong… The Ecobank’s cashiers said she got the money! When the bank’s chairman intervened they found out that the Ecobank’s branch had extra 100 USD in the day’s cash budget the exact amount which was sent to the old woman. Anyway, he said he was not going to do anything.

  Ecobank has been called by some Kyrgyz expats as a ‘dodgy’ (or in Russian ‘levyi’) bank because of similar or other problems with the bank.

  Of course, not all banks in the country are ‘pure’ but when Ecobank will get rid of the ‘old’ tricks from the soviet legacy?

  Tokon Azisov

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  News in Russian about 1000 banks in CIS
  http://www.pr.kg/n/detail.php?id=7061

  Some comments in Russian about Ecobank (look out for ‘colourful’ language)
  http://bez-chuvstv.livejournal.com/33532.html

  23 January 2007, 11:58 am

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