Republic Bank Ltd (RBL), known as one of the Twin Islands’ biggest banks, recently informed its customers that it is decreasing the maximum US dollar spending limit by 50% every billing cycle on their Republic Bank credit cards.
This information was sent by email to its customers to communicate this new change. This new initiative will take place starting September 21, 2023, where persons will only have access to $5,000 USD and not the usual $10,000 USD.
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The explanation for the decrease in the US dollar credit card limit was not given in the email sent.
RBL noted in their email that: “This change includes all transactions conducted outside of T&T as well as all international online transactions, including transactions where the chosen billing currency is T&T dollar.
“These online transactions will be included in your US$5,000 billing cycle limit. All local T&T-dollar transactions conducted online or at merchants remain unaffected.”
Furthermore, RBL announced that starting on October 1, 2023, the limit on its pre-paid VTM card will be reduced. The maximum VTM card balance will drop from US$5,000 to US$3,000, and the US$1,000 online VTM load limit will become US$500.
After being hit with this news the WhatsApp groups railed over the Republic’s move to restrict the amount of money that may be spent on foreign products and services.
RBL raised the daily transaction cap for in-person and online purchases from $10,000 to $50,000 on July 21.
The bank said that this meant that combined transactions made through e-commerce and point-of-sale terminals might total up to $50,000.
The bank stated in a statement that “for example, if a point-of-sale transaction is $10,000, then an e-commerce transaction can be as high as $40,000.”
Republic Financial Holdings Ltd (RFHL), the parent company of Republic Bank Ltd, reported a profit applicable to its shareholders of $1.26 billion for the nine months ended June 30, 2023, a 10.2% increase over the same period in the previous fiscal year.
The Cayman Islands in the north, Suriname in the south, and Ghana are all locations where RFHL conducts business.
As of June 30, 2023, the bank holding company’s assets came to $114.4 billion.
