Open mike: Bermuda's banks

Counter Service writes:

"Bermuda businesses, be they international or local, often claim to be world class. Some reach round the world with innovative insurance products; others supply locals with world class customer service. However, the side is let down by banking practices that are more minor league than world class. Three days to get an online payee approved - even when it's the 100 year-old behemoth that is Belco? Ten days' wait to pick up new cards from the bank's counter? Has anyone heard of a courier?

Banks are not charities and they are conservative by nature of the business. But does it have to prevent them delivering good customer service? Be it in terms of running the traditional business or creating better services to use?

On Monday night I tried to book British Airways flights online using my Bank of Bermuda Visa-branded debit card. Four days later I gave up and used a back-up credit card from my home country. Twelve attempts using my card, the wife's card, in the morning, at night, at work and at home hadn't worked. No matter what, I always go a rebuff from BA saying that the billing address was wrong.

I checked the address with the bank. They told me it was correct. Calls to BA's web support said that the rebuff was coming from the bank. I've been buying flights online from BA for over a decade and I've been involved in e-commerce for 12 years. I know that it's not going to be BA's fault. They want to take money off me in the nicest possible way. I called the bank. They said it was BA's problem. I called again and someone, someone honest, said it was a "known problem" that Bank of Bermuda customers have using the BA site. I asked what the bank was going to do about it? I was told to book by phone - for which BA will take an extra $20 out of my wallet.

So that's Bermuda's leading bank, the one that's relaunching its Internet banking, telling me to use the old-fashioned way of doing it. Washing its hands. World class?

But in every bad experience there is room for improvement. We know that a new entrant into Bermuda banking just isn’t likely but there's room for a re-invigorated one. Capital G has been advertising for a boardroom full of senior posts. From CEO to senior vice-president of marketing. Looks like things are happening over on Reid Street. If Capital G is sharp, why not launch products that allow the account holder to set up payees straight away? Or that sweep someone's accounts to offset interest? Let's see banking that’s less Hicksville USA and more world class."

[I believe that HSBC has said the ability to instantaneously set up new payees is one of the features that will be available in its new Internet banking system - The Limey]

Comments

[Wickering Banker on 16.08.06 at 23:06]

I'm away using the extremely pathetic AOL software at my mother in laws.

Check the first line of you billing address character for character. Parlaville, or Par La Ville, or Par-La-Ville. It makes a difference.

Do not rely on what your bank has as the address. Ask them what Visa has.
Honestly, this will make a difference.

[sandgrownan on 16.08.06 at 23:37]

Ah yes..banks. You lend them your money and they charge you for the privilege.

[Combat Banker on 17.08.06 at 01:46]

Actually I have found that many websites just have trouble with the fact that there is not always both a "City" AND "State /Province /Parish/County" entry for Bermudian addresses. Don't know if that is remotely your problem with BA however.

[ObservaMan on 17.08.06 at 02:06]

For a country that prides itself in being an international business hub, Bermuda's banking is pathetic. All the banks are far behind in electronic products/services offered to both corporate and personal clients. Most processes have improved over the past 5 years but still are incredibly slow compared to the rest of North America. Its almost like they are afraid that being fresh and innovative with their electronic product offerings may create new technological risks and uncertainties for them. I guess if it ain't broke.....

[Brenda Lana Smith on 17.08.06 at 04:01]

Limey...

Wickering Banker is correct... a couple of months back I began to experience similar problems here in Britain to those you encountered when buying online in Bermuda, but with a Barclays' Visa debit card, until I amended my browser's AutoFill address to read exactly the same as my Barclays' bank account... (to wit: "1 Richards Court" for "Flat 1 Richards Court") all of which I put down to a case of lack of communication... Visa tightening up their online security without ensuring the issuing banks advised their Visa cardholders of the new measures...

[Bill Cook on 17.08.06 at 07:17]

Well it seems I am not alone in having problems using my Visa online !

Its very difficult if its from the US and you cannot speak to an operative as we cannot fill in state as we do not have states in Bermuda.

Also some companies who have been ripped off will not accept a credit card thats not American ie an American address.

I have had no success trying to get compensated for non delivery of goods that my Visa has been debited with.

If I contact Visa they refer me to my Bank and the bank have never been able to assist in recovery to date.

My friends in US have done much better in that regard but in Bermuda we lag far behind in customer service in my experience.

The utility services not to stray but when my phone went out once again, I tried phoning in from my fax phone to report it and got a recording that when I pressed 2 it ignored it and kept repeating the instructions.

I wonder if anyone has ever gotten a credit for the time the phone was out of order ?

[Hello, my name is Somers and I am a Bermudian on 17.08.06 at 08:50]

I suspect it is that issueing bank is not an American bank. (i.e. BOB, BNTB)
The US address trick was a loophole that the online merchants are now closing since it is too easy for a terrorist in Istanbul to have a US mailing address. Just my .02 from what I have been told.

Funny though - in all the years of online ordering the one place that doesn't seem to care about address's is my Amazon profile... I still have my old ZipX address for that profile, and I now use USExpress... never been declined int he two years of ordering... consequently if it is not on Amazon (or through one of their approved merchants) I tend not order it.

[Hello, my name is Somers and I am a Bermudian on 17.08.06 at 08:52]

Oh - and another thing - isn't about time that Bermuda be one of the accepted jurisdictions on PayPal!!!!!!!! Arrrghh....

[Martin on 17.08.06 at 09:20]

Bill...

"I wonder if anyone has ever gotten a credit for the time the phone was out of order?"

Yes - we managed it, and I have to say without much difficulty either. Maybe the wrong thing to say, but I was surprised I have to admit.

[silencedogood on 17.08.06 at 09:27]

Even in Hicksville, USA you get better banking service than BDA. A backup credit card from a foriegn country is a must in Bermuda.

I no longer attempt to book or buy anything with the BoB card--the fees they would have earned off me alone are probably very significant--you would think they would have figured this out by now and try to capture those dollars. Anyone from BoB reading this?

[Bill Cook on 17.08.06 at 09:37]

Martin,

Thats great to know, I like many of the people at BTC but not crazy about the system, its so frustrating.

I just purchased some LCD TVs and could not use my credit card as was not a US address and they say they had problems.

I had a relative use theirs, who lives there and shipped to Bermuda via a forwarding service, as many US companies wont ship outside the US, but only to an address in the US.

The problem is that they do not enclose an invoice quite often, making it tough to clear customs, so beware if using this system to get an invoice mailed beforehand or e mailed.

[Ali on 17.08.06 at 10:46]

I do a lot of online booking and have had my share of frustrations but I have to admit that it is usually a mistake (easy to make) on my part and the HSBC credit card syatem does work if you get everything exactly right. I also think the BA website is now one of the best allowing for proper address entry from wherever you live as long as you register your country when you start you do not have the American problem of state abbreviations and zips. BA often take a bashing, their website is excellent.

[RedOnion on 17.08.06 at 11:03]

Last night I had occasion to try to order something using my BOB Visa card and for the first time had it declined due to "an error with security code or Card ID". I re-entered the info directly from the card, checking carefully and had it right each time but still got the same error message. I have found in the past that if all info including address were entered correctly that it worked every time, but perhaps some new screening is taking place, which obviously screens out my card .. it's a conspiracy!

[sleepy on 17.08.06 at 11:05]

All the banks are a mess.

I've had a mortgage with Capital G for 5 years and they have never sent a statement...ever.

It took 3 weeks of hassling to get a one-off out of them.

[Banker in Wermuda on 17.08.06 at 11:15]

There are 2 issues:-
1. the address data held by Visa (given to them by your bank) vs the address data you entered in the transaction. If the two don't match, you have a problem.
2. depending on the merchant you're using, Visa may have more stringent requirements about the data that the merchant sends them for verification, when you check-out. Eg. for Amazon, they may only check the 1st line of the address, whereas for viagra.com they may check the whole address. That might explain the variability between sites.

Bottom line for Bermuda, is that we are not a large, well-known jurisdiction, so will always be subject to extra validation checks from Visa & Mastercard, irrespective of which local bank you use. That said, some banks are better at handling your information (not to mention your money) than others. I've found Cap G to be the most responsive. Their cards also have the best rates by far.

[Wickering Banker :-) ---: on 17.08.06 at 11:37]

By far the most annoying thing is websites that only deal with US addresses. You cannot order unless you can say you are in a state.

Everyone outside the good ole USA is a potential terrorist so you can expect this to only get worse.

[silencedogood on 17.08.06 at 11:58]

Wickering,

The US CC only thing has been around a long time. I think it's more about not wanting to chase debtors or being subject to the jurisdiction of courts across the globe than anything else. It adds a huge layer of complexity to the business model.

[Phil on 17.08.06 at 12:29]

silencedogood

But I can walk into a bricks-and-mortar store in the US and use my BOB Visa card there. So why not online? I don't see the difference.

[silencedogood on 17.08.06 at 12:31]

Limey,

In addition to pookie's comment, you can't overlook the jurisdictional issue.

If you put up a website you are dealing with the legal system of any country where you do business. Meaning:

1) You have to know each country’s commercial compliance laws and regulations,

2) The customer may be able to sue you in their home court which entails additional expense to defend suits and probably some nationalist bias,

3) Or the laws themselves may be extremely unfavorable or arbitrary, and then there are the potential language barriers.

4) Of course you would need to know the application of the Hague convention on service of process as well to get out of suits by amateurs and punters.

5) You may also be faced with more issues of stolen cards because they probably take longer to trace.

6) You have to consider tax treatment of the income which will require more trips to your accountant and a bigger services bill.

There are probably a lot of other issues which pointy-headed international lawyers will know about for a high price.

If your business model only anticipates a minor number of sales overseas the economies of scale are just not behind this and it will get nixed from a cost-benefit analysis. A point-of-sale purchase in the US counts as US income for taxes, is subject to exclusive jurisdiction by US courts (which may not be favorable but its familiar), and doesn't involve any grey areas for regulations.

If you look at alot of the companies who do e-commerce outside the US most have a separate website using the .ca, .uk, etc. tags. I’m not surfing the net as much as blogging would make it appear but I know the travel websites do this. I've never worked in this area, but I'd assume it's to distinguish those sales so the company can firewall its risk exposure from business in each country. They may go so far as to make each company a subsidiary, manage its website, etc.

I know you are probably thinking—what about Amazon or the other big retailers who may not have international websites? I don’t know, but with most I’d guess that they will establish themselves electronically in the US first because it’s got to be the largest e-commerce market and then will branch out—Bermuda’s about 10 years behind in most things (Eddie Money is still in regular rotation on our radio) so I’d expect e-commerce to reach our shores in 2016 after Europe and China have gotten it first.

But I could be wrong. Like I said I’ve never worked in this field, but the above reasons seem logical and in no way related to terrorism. It may not be as sexy to find business reasons are the culprit rather than the US-paranoid-boogeyman that a lot of people on this blog subscribe to, but explanations typically aren’t sexy.

[Guilden M. Gilbert, Jr. on 17.08.06 at 12:39]

Doesn't Bermuda have a Mail Box Etc. or similar service where you can obtain a U.S. address? This should solve any problems because generally you can have two addresses attached to your card.

[Pookie on 17.08.06 at 12:51]

"But I can walk into a bricks-and-mortar store in the US and use my BOB Visa card there. So why not online?"

In the store, it is a face-to-face presentment and all they check is whether the card is good (and if the signatures match).

For obvious reasons, there are more attempts to conduct fraud online so they do more. They confirm the billing address, the security codes, etc. Different payment processors (who facilitate this for the merchant) have different ways of doing this and more checks = more possibilities for things to go wrong.

[Floating on 17.08.06 at 12:57]

BA will not allow you to purchase tickets on their website with a *debit* card. A Bermuda based *credit* card works just fine. Their website staff should have told you that when you called, that's how I found out.

Frustrating, but BA policy, not a Bermuda bank problem. Though the banks here do have many problems.

[Two Cents on 17.08.06 at 13:18]

"In the store, it is a face-to-face presentment and all they check is whether the card is good (and if the signatures match)."

In theory that's how it's supposed to work, however in practice I have found that it's not the case;
1. My wife regularly uses my credit card in the U.S/Canada/U.K and only once out of many uses has she been questioned on why the card has a male name on it & why the signatures don't match.

2. When my card number was stolen two years ago, the thief had a phony card made up; the fake card wasn't a Gold card, and it was a mexican issued card with a Bermuda prefix, he used it to make 13 transactions to the value of $7000.00+; from a Direct TV dish to $110 at the Krispy Kreme Donut Shop (I guess that's why they weren't suspicious...haha). Mastercard let all of the tranactions go through for processing, the thief as far as we can tell was never questioned or asked for I.D (the phony catd wasn't even signed...so Mastercard said when the card was siezed in Panama. We didn't know in Bermuda until I complained to the Bank when my statement arrived

[Martin on 17.08.06 at 13:22]

Nothing to do with credit cards...but we once paid a friend of ours in Canada with a BoB cheque (or is that check?)

Our friend's bank would not accept it..despite having HSBC on it.

Very strange.

[silencedogood on 17.08.06 at 13:31]

Limey,

In addition to pookie's comment, you can't overlook the jurisdictional issue.

If you put up a website you are dealing with the legal system of any country where you do business. Meaning:

1) You have to know each country’s commercial compliance laws and regulations,

2) The customer may be able to sue you in their home court which entails additional expense to defend suits and probably some nationalist bias,

3) Or the laws themselves may be extremely unfavorable or arbitrary, and then there are the potential language barriers.

4) Of course you would need to know the application of the Hague convention on service of process as well to get out of suits by amateurs and punters.

5) You may also be faced with more issues of stolen cards because they probably take longer to trace.

6) You have to consider tax treatment of the income which will require more trips to your accountant and a bigger services bill.

There are probably a lot of other issues which pointy-headed international lawyers will know about for a high price.

If your business model only anticipates a minor number of sales overseas the economies of scale are just not behind this and it will get nixed from a cost-benefit analysis. A point-of-sale purchase in the US counts as US income for taxes, is subject to exclusive jurisdiction by US courts (which may not be favorable but its familiar), and doesn't involve any grey areas for regulations.

If you look at alot of the companies who do e-commerce outside the US most have a separate website using the .ca, .uk, etc. tags. I’m not surfing the net as much as blogging would make it appear but I know the travel websites do this. I've never worked in this area, but I'd assume it's to distinguish those sales so the company can firewall its risk exposure from business in each country. They may go so far as to make each company a subsidiary, manage its website, etc.

I know you are probably thinking—what about Amazon or the other big retailers who may not have international websites? I don’t know, but with most I’d guess that they will establish themselves electronically in the US first because it’s got to be the largest e-commerce market and then will branch out—Bermuda’s about 10 years behind in most things (Eddie Money is still in regular rotation on our radio) so I’d expect e-commerce to reach our shores in 2016 after Europe and China have gotten it first.

But I could be wrong. Like I said I’ve never worked in this field, but the above reasons seem logical and in no way related to terrorism. It may not be as sexy to find business reasons are the culprit rather than the US-paranoid-boogeyman that a lot of people on this blog subscribe to, but explanations typically aren’t sexy.

[money for nothin on 17.08.06 at 13:41]

Sleepy...I also have my mortgage at Cap G and I am very frustrated that they do not send out (or email) statements (only a receipt showing the direct deposit was made). I walk up there once a month and have them print out my statement for me. Annoying..but worth it. Cap G needs to get moving with a web site that we can use to access all this data electronically whenever we want. There is no excuse in 2006 for not offering this service. Does anyone know if this is in the works?

DO not even get me started on BNTB service. And why can they ever keep their coin sorter working? Its not rocket science its just a big coin sorter...hello!!! hire a technician. The lines are a joke and no TV to entertain you while waiting for 45 minutes. BNTB SUCKS!

[SmokingGun on 17.08.06 at 13:43]

silencedogood - you are correct on the business scaling. Bermuda and other such small locales are a complication that would require too much time/money/effort to make it worth doing. There is another reason why Bermuda sometimes gets the short end. We often gets lumped in with the Caribbean and many of those islands are notorious for scam artists so they red flag everything.

[Phil on 17.08.06 at 13:44]

Guilden

Doesn't Bermuda have a Mail Box Etc. or similar service where you can obtain a U.S. address? This should solve any problems because generally you can have two addresses attached to your card.

Getting a US mailing address is easy. Unfortunately many American retailers are increasingly requiring that the card is issued by a US bank (iTunes being one of them).

[Pookie on 17.08.06 at 13:45]

"we once paid a friend of ours in Canada with a BoB cheque (or is that check?) Our friend's bank would not accept it..despite having HSBC on it."

You wrote a BD$ check and thought a Cda bank would accept it? Did you give the option of paying in beads or clamshells?

Need a draft for that issued from a recognised correspondent bank that's part of their clearing system. That's just the way it works.

[Guilden M. Gilbert, Jr. on 17.08.06 at 13:58]

Limey,

Pardon my ignorance but how do the retailers know where the card is issued?

I am asking because I never seem to have this problem when I making online purchases and having them sent to my U.S. address.

[Tiggy on 17.08.06 at 14:01]

This may get nixed by the Limey as being off target, but with these CC machines that you just swipe your own card and then sign on the computer pad, does this check your signature on file? Miles has this system now. The procedure never allows the cashier to check your signature against the one on the back of the card. Does anyone know as I very curious! If it doesn't somehow check it, then this would seem to me the perfect way to commit credit card fraud!!!!

[SmokingGun on 17.08.06 at 14:12]

Tell me about it. I dropped a credit card whilst in an ATM in Boston and within 9 minutes someone had found it and used it to purchase an item at a grocery store to see if it worked. Within 45 minutes they hit 7 more shops and purchased over $600 worth of items. Fortunately the credit card security team saw the rapid purchases made which I normally would not do and put a stop to it.

Not one person checked the signature in 8 transactions. I have since learned a new trick. I write on the back of my cards "Must show ID". It means I have to show my license but what the heck - peace of mind.

[Tiggy on 17.08.06 at 14:14]

And everyone asks for your ID or do you normally have it out at the same time? Curious as it seems to be a good idea and I might try the same!

[SmokingGun on 17.08.06 at 14:22]

Funny - no they do not always ask and sometimes I do forget to pull my license out at the same time. The good thing is that if a card does get lost again it will be a big help in deterring the thief from trying to use it.
And I should never have an issue with a bank or store over payment responsibilty.

Now all I have to worry about is if he has a phone or goes on-line. ;-)

[Tiggy on 17.08.06 at 14:25]

My father had a Chase card that had his picture on it - even better?

[SmokingGun on 17.08.06 at 14:32]

Ouch Tiggy - that hurts. I had the idea of putting photos on credit cards 5 years before they came out. Even started some research but never ended up doing anything about it. Alas someone at Chase (I think they were the first in fact) went on to a nice corner office with the same thought. Oh well... many more ideas to play with.

[TheRealDeal on 17.08.06 at 15:27]

Well just to let you guys some more insight on this topic. BNTB and BOB allow you to list a second address on the credit card in order to show that your card could be based out of the U.S. for online purchasing. (i.e. Your ZipEX address could be used.) However, this second address sometimes is not updated in the U.S. databases as fast as one would like and will cause a card to be denied even though the BNTB or BOB have updated there database locally. A pain, but that's the price to pay in an income tax free country.

Another safety feature that a lot of credit card processors are now using is the ability to automatically detect where your card is from as soon as you click the final order button. This is accomplished by scanning the first four digits of your credit card which correspond to the issuing bank. So even though it might be a legitimate credit card, if it's not issued from a bank in the U.S. it will always be denied.

[Palm Trees by the Sea on 17.08.06 at 15:34]

Tiggy, no, i strongly doubt the Miles thing checks signatures....it's just digitising your sig on their systems so they dont have to store tons of paper receipts..

you are right though -- how do they check the signature against what's on the card? I might go buy myself a buttie and see what happens.

[Online Banking on 17.08.06 at 15:37]

To respond to the question regarding online banking at Capital G - yes, it is in the works, due to come out very soon.

[Martin on 17.08.06 at 16:52]

Pookie...

Thanks for the info. For the record, we did try paying them in Onions...that's a looney + 20%....but being the tight people they are (ooppsss), they refused.

[island dweller on 17.08.06 at 16:58]

Good day All,

Don't worry about using you credit card for ordering goods and services online. Sooner or later, you will have to be concerned about your IP address being rejected instead; er, your digital zip code.

[Eric on 17.08.06 at 18:31]

I recall a (pathetically) funny story at the Bank of Bermuda not too long ago. I wanted to pay down my credit card before leaving the island for an extended trip. So I came with cash - as in ten crisp 50 dollar bills. I filled out the form they asked me to complete, and handed the teller the form and the cold, hard cash. I said, "so my account balance should be zero now, correct?" to which she responded that no, it would take 10 business days for it to "clear".

"There's nothing to clear", I said, "it's CASH. There's no other banking institution from whom to ensure payment. You have actual bills in your hand." She proceeded to argue her point - clearly (no pun intended) not understanding what "clearing" between financial institutions refers to.

That irreverent exchange is typical when I encounter the low level customer assistance at the bank. I'm not upset that the person is pretty much clueless as to standard banking procedures, it was her attitude that was astonishing. I got the ol' hand on the hip, waving her finger in the air and circular head bob action from her. Then, as I tried to explain, I received the (not unexpected) "tooth-sucking" sounds while she rolled her eyes.

C'mon people... you're the face of the bank. The (dare I say) "bitch" attitude should be dropped.

Most likely, she'll be staging a work stoppage when she doesn't get promoted to the Head of Customer Relations.

hahahaha

[SmokingGun on 17.08.06 at 19:02]

Eric - The banking business is notoriously inefficient. In fact I just noticed that when I withdrew $100 from the ATM the other day the machine screwed up and immediately adjusted my balance. I will be sending a letter demanding the 10 day clearance period be re-instated. ;-)

[Horst on 17.08.06 at 20:56]

Here's some answers; What's happening is called AVS, or Address Verification Service which only works for US and I beleive European addresses. It doesn't work for issuers in the Latin America / Caribbean (LAC) region, which includes us. To combat fraud many merchants and their banks use AVS, and if you are with a LAC issuer it will always fail.

Also, your issuing bank is identified by the first 6 digits in your card number. Visa and MasterCard use this number to switch traffic to the correct bank or processor.

[getReal on 18.08.06 at 01:10]

You won't find address verification a problem with CAPITAL G VISA cards.

Why?

Because their authorisation processor doesn't offer them AVR - that is address verification.

You can quote any address that you like and it will be considered valid.

This may sound like a good thing.....it's not!

It means that you are more likely to be subject to fraud if your VISA card number is ever compromised.

[getReal on 18.08.06 at 01:22]

Other Trivia: All of these senior level recruitment adverts at CAPITAL G do represent signs of change, but it's questionable whether they could be considered positive changes.

The adverts for CEO and SVP Marketing are to replace people that have resigned.

Since 2003 CAP G has turned over nine execuives of SVP level or above, and it only has 10 positions at this level.

The organisation has struggled to retain key staff and this does not bode well for the evolution of banking in Bermuda.

[Online Banking on 18.08.06 at 17:27]

getReal:

There are actually 15+ SVP and higher positions at Capital G. There have been resignations in only a few of these, other replacements were due to persons retiring, expats being replaced by Bermudians etc.

The CEO was with Capital G for 13 years before resigning, the SVP of Marketing was held by an expat who resigned. I do not think it is fair to say Capital G is struggling to retain key staff, when a majority of the SVP and EVP posts are held by people that have been with the bank for many years. There has not been turnover in 9 out of 10 positions in the past 3 years.

[getReal@bermuda.com on 19.08.06 at 03:49]

Online Banking - The facts are as follows!

The following SVP-level and above departures at CAPITAL G since 2003 are as follows:

Sarah Farrington, CEO CAPITAL G Bank
Cherie Witter, SVP Marketing
Marianne Suschak-Matvey, SVP Marketing
Kenrick Bagnall, SVP IT
Jorge Diago, SVP Card Services
Billy Mollison, SVP Audit & Compliance
Robert Morgan, SVP Project Management
Valerie Guagliano, SVP Client Relationship Management
Katie Everett, SVP Financial Controller

This is either poor retention or poor recruitment.

The most recent SVP Marketing was an SoB not an expat and has moved to HSBC after spending less than 2 years with CAPITAL G.

There are 11 SVP and above executives involved in the day-to-day management of CAPITAL G Bank and a handful of others elsewhere in the CAPITAL G Group such as CAPITAL G Investments and First Atlantic Commerce.

Of the 11 SVP+ positions noted above 4 are held by Bermudians, 2 by SoB's, 3 by expatriates, and 2 are currently unoccupied.

Of the 9 SVP+ positions currently occupied average tenure is just over 3 years: this would tip below 3 years if two new appointments are made for the positions currently unfilled. Of these people 5 have 3 or fewer years tenure, and the others have greater than 5 years tenure.

Of the 9 SVP+ that departed since 2003 2 were Bermudians, 1 was SoB, and 6 were expatriates.

Of these 9 there were 4 resignations, 1 retirement (early), 3 defacto fired (replaced by Bermudians or SoB's), 1 failed to pass probation(replaced by expatriate).

It is true that the recently departed CEO had served for 13 years.

Why would a CEO resign if her company's 'stock' were rising?

Looks like a retention problem to me!

[swinging on 20.08.06 at 08:43]

The bottom line is customer satisfaction I have never heard a bad word about Capital G only compliments about thier personal service and better saving's rates.

[Canadian Girl on 20.08.06 at 14:10]

I agree with Swinging... I think Capital G has a pretty good reputation, they stand up well to their competitors who are much larger than they are.

I wonder if some of those resignations that getReal has listed has to do with the fact that the company has grown so much in those 3 years... maybe some of the staff couldn't handle the evolving roles they were given, couldn't keep up the pace with the growth of the company, or were not experienced/educated enough to handle it. Just a thought.