By Berio Mbala WINDHOEK Standard Bank Namibia has denied charging excessive bank charges following a complaint to this effect in which a client said the bank levied charges totalling N$270 on N$540 deposited through the bank. The N$540 was sent from Namibia to a payee in South Africa. The bank charged the customer N$190 and payee paid N$80 when withdrawing the money, amounting to N$270, which is fifty percent of the N$540 that was initially deposited in Namibia. The Manager: Public Relations and Communication of Standard Bank, Carmen Maartens, said there is a general misconception resulting in the current stir over the service fees charged to clients. “We have had this query from the customer and upon investigation it was revealed that unfortunately the customer was charged an incorrect fee,” she said. She said the matter was rectified immediately upon discovery of the wrong fee and the customer has since been reimbursed with the amount wrongly deducted from the N$540 after the bank detected its mistake. She continued, “This was a mistake from the bank’s side and we are grateful that the customer was alert enough to notice the amount so that the mistake could be rectified.” She said that immediately when the case was forwarded to their bank it was looked into and the customer was also happy that the matter has been resolved. The complainant in the matter, Rainer Iben, said there was some misunderstanding with the Standard Bank of Port Elizabeth, because they did not know Namibia is part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in which there is a fixed trading fee. He said the SADC countries in this context are South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique. He also said the bank responded to him positively and were ready to apologise for its mistake. He added that their services are excellent and “our country will appreciate to still have them in future”. Maartens also said, “Due to the incorrect fee charged there is therefore not a huge discrepancy between what we charge and what other banks possibly charge.” Standard Bank charges an amount of N$55 that is well in line with other service fees and compares favourably to charges by other banks. She said that Standard Bank fees are very comparable to those of its competitors and the bank is constantly in touch with its customers to determine the level of their requirements. She continued saying banks do stand accused of high bank charges, and this is because unfortunately very few customers understand the complexity of the banking industry and how it operates but at the last competition board hearing the regulator found the banks to be within their rights and that the charges levied were in fact reasonable. She ended up saying Standard Bank strives to educate its clients about fees and inform them about the products and services that best meet their needs. “We offer a world-class service with many product offerings based on individual needs and we strive to educate our clients about the best products and services for them so that they can make educated decisions.” “We offer alternative channels to ensure client convenience so that costs are kept to a minimum,” she said. ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ÂÂÂ