One day after members of the public experienced delays with their salary at banks and credit unions, The Central Bank of Barbados says next week’s payrolls – for both private and government workers – will be treated as a priority.
A release said the Central Bank would be working closely with financial institutions to ensure payments were checked and ready before payday.
“The Central Bank has put immediate measures and twice-daily oversight in place and will remain engaged until salaries are flowing normally,” the statement said.
“We have required participating banks and credit unions to work directly with employers to check and correct payroll information before payments are sent, and to credit affected employees through controlled arrangements where salary instructions and funds can be verified, so that workers are paid while the institutions settle matters between themselves afterwards.
“Banks have also been instructed not to charge employees any fees connected with these corrections,” it added.
Concern mounted yesterday as some people faced the prospect of not being paid. It was traced to the new national instant payment system BiMPay. Payroll files from businesses and some other electronic bulk payments were said to be incorrectly formatted and being rejected.
“The delays arose from the form in which some account information was submitted with payroll files. The banks are correcting this directly with the employers concerned, so that payments flow without these interruptions.”
Members of the public were also informed that they were not required to download BiMPay to access their salaries.
“If you are paid by direct deposit to a bank or credit union account, that arrangement continues exactly as before, and you need do nothing.” (PR/SAT)