Standard Bank clears credit card confusion

STANDARD Bank Namibia clients will be able to breathe a sigh of relief on Friday – the date by which the bank will have all point-of-sale (POS) terminals replaced.

The bank on Monday briefed the press on the progress that has been made to correct the problems experienced by clients since it converted its credit card system from the old South African Saswitch system to the new Namibian Namswitch system.
According to Richard Meeks, Head for Special Projects, the bank experienced ‘teething problems’ with its credit card conversion.
As part of the process, 27 000 new credit cards were distributed to the bank’s customers, and new ‘uniquely Namibian’ POS terminals were also rolled out to merchants across the country.
Meeks said this was a complex task that could not have been completed overnight, adding that the implementation phase ‘could only come into effect after the Namswitch system had gone live on November 7 2008, two weeks after the original date agreed by all banks for implementation.’
He said the highest priority had been given to the various problems faced during the conversion, and said most of these had been addressed, with the remaining issues scheduled to be resolved by the end of this month.
The bank said all its POS terminals would be replaced by January 23.
Many Standard Bank customers experienced scenarios where a personal identification number (PIN) was requested for credit card purchases that shouldn’t usually require one, or not requested for debit card purchases that should require a PIN.
Meeks said a software fault on the old South African-issued POS terminals caused this problem.
According to Mike Beaurain, the Head of Personal and Business Banking at Standard Bank, 75 per cent of the bank’s credit card clients have already collected their new Namibian credit cards. Customers have until the end of the month to collect these cards from their branches.
A number of Standard Bank clients had approached The Namibian about foreign transaction charges when they made local transactions.
‘During the conversion process, transactions have been routed through Mastercard in Rand, into US dollars and back into Namibian dollars, and in this process there could have been marginal differences in the rates,’ Beaurain said yesterday.
‘This is the worldwide process of Mastercard, but the problem of exchange rate differences will disappear once all Standard Bank’s POS terminals have been converted,’ he said.
Mpumzi Pupuma, Managing Director of Standard Bank, apologised for the inconvenience experienced by the bank’s customers and merchants during the process.
According to Barry Fergus, Director of Cards for Standard Bank Africa, the conversion problems did not significantly affect the bank’s client base or turnover.
‘Merchant turnover matches and exceeds purchases recorded for the same period last year, and we have seen no big decreases in cardholders as compared to decreases in December/January last year,’ he said. – nangula@namibian.com.na