Scottylad

My wife and I will be visiting St Lucia again in March and one of our tasks will be to open a bank account. The procedure for Royal Bank of Canada seems quite straightforward, Royal Caribbean and Bank of St Lucia seem to need much more detail. Does anyone have experience of opening an account and which bank would you recommend? Are any of the banks affected by the economic downturn as we would like to deposit some money and would hope to choose the safest home for our cash? All comments welcome.

3aces

I opened an account with the Bank of St Lucia while on holiday last month. They asked for two forms of ID and a bank reference (which I had already requested from my bank before traveling). The account was opened immediately with internet banking access as well - they gave me my username and password there.

Can't comment on the future viability of the bank itself. Not something I looked into as I only have EC$50 in the account.

Scottylad

Hi 3aces
Thanks for that - what forms of ID did they need? I will sort out a bank reference now so we can take that with us. From what you say we won't need to deposit much but do you know what sort of interest they offer since interest rates here are not much use now?

3aces

ID required - driving licence and passport. I didn't bother checking their rates to be honest, probably because I was only depositing EC$50

Chris Louisy

Thanks for the above info.

We were there in Oct & tried to open a bank account. What a nightmare!!

We were given a list of requirements:~

2 forms of I.D with photo's
Police report
Bank reference
Fingerprints
Proof of address
Proof of income
Copies of utility bills
Letter from our employer (proving our income)

In the end we gave up!!

But, having got all of the above, we hope we'll be OK

We're going next Friday & will try to set up a bank account. Will report back when we return

Chris

3aces

Which bank? Bank of St Lucia?

Chris Louisy

No, it was the First Caribbean International Bank

LucyLock

Try 1st National they seemed to have simplified things.

Scottylad

What sort of information do 1st National ask for and do you know what sort of interest they pay on deposits? Does anyone know anything about the financial stability of the banks in St Lucia bearing in mind the amount of Government assistance given to them here and in USA and the banks' unfailing ability to still come up with ways to lose even more money and yet continue to find it necessary to pay large bonuses to avoid losing experienced staff? Surely we want those experienced staff to disappear elsewhere?
Are St Lucian banks independent or owned by some large American or Canadian operation?
Probably looking to deposit 20,000 t0 25,000 EC so wanting a relatively safe home for it, but with reasonable interest as we now can't get interest on savings here.

Scottylad

Further to my earlier post, does anyone know if any of the St Lucian banks are or might be affected by the Sir Allen Stanford situation in Antigua? How many more of these financial whizz-kids are going to surprise us with their creative accounting practices being uncovered over the coming months? Is anybody's money safe anywhere?

3aces

lol I was going to post a similar message but you beat me to it

Probably the safest place at the moment is under your mattress!!!
lol

Scottylad

Makes you wonder if the mattress is the best place after all

Banks ask us for all sort of references and proof of identity so perhaps now it's us who should be asking the banks for references

Chris Louisy

Hi everyone

Sorry, I haven't had a minute to update.

We managed to open a bank account with the First Caribbean Bank. It took 3 hours, yes, 3 hours!!!! And a whole heap of paperwork. Mind you, I went armed to the teeth with ID, proof of name/address etc.

We actually took sterling with us as the rate was better there & I had to provide a receipt from my bank to prove that's where I got the money from (it was quite a large amount so I do understand why).

Anyway, I now have an account there so it was worth it

Cheers
Chris

Scottylad

Looks like Bank of St Lucia is the best bet for simplicity of opening an account. I presume with internet access we could just transfer money when we wanted with no need to provide proof like Chris? Anyone know if Bank of St Lucia is a subsidiary of any other bank?