Scotiabank complied with its legal obligations

THE EDITOR, Madam:

We are writing in response to an article on the front page of your newspaper titled ‘Court Orders Scotia to Repay Gloria’s $3.5 million’.

Scotiabank is disappointed with the judgment given in this case and will be immediately filing an appeal.

The issue outlined in the judgment surrounds the procedures stipulated in the Banking Services Act regarding the publication of dormant accounts. Section 126 of The Banking Services Act clearly indicates that the publication of dormant accounts in the press is the responsibility of the minister of finance, this would also be the case for publication in the Gazette and publication on the Ministry of Finance website.

None of these would be the responsibility of Scotiabank or any other bank. Scotiabank complied with its legal obligations to submit the required information for all applicable dormant accounts and subsequently remitted those funds to the Accountant General.

We will therefore proceed to appeal the matter.

While we certainly empathise with the plaintiff, the Government has a clear process to reclaim moneys that have been transferred to the Consolidated Fund from the Accountant General’s Department. We have previously offered to assist the plaintiff with that process, and we remain open to doing so.

ScotiaBank