Banks will sell U.S. drafts to purchase B.T.L. shares

The Central Bank of Belize today provided some clarification on how Belizeans can take advantage of Government’s offer to sell shares in Belize Telecommunications Limited. As we reported in last night’s newscast, U.S. cash is not acceptable as a mode of payment. This was confirmed today by Central Bank Governor Sidney Campbell who explained to News Five that the bank very rarely deals in cash other than local currency and is just not equipped to handle a high volume of U.S. cash transactions. “We do not have the expertise to deal with the detection of U.S. counterfeit currency,” said Campbell. When asked how Belizeans without U.S. chequeing accounts could procure U.S. dollar cheques, Campbell suggested that the local banks are well positioned to accept greenbacks in exchange for U.S. bank drafts… but as we discovered today, that transaction comes at a cost.

Here’s how it works… at least how it worked at the Belize Bank.

Let’s assume that you want to buy the minimum of one hundred B.T.L. shares at U.S. two seventy-one per share. That means you need a draft for two hundred and seventy-one U.S. dollars. Okay, you give the teller your two hundred and seventy-one dollars in cash, which they purchase from you at a rate of two-to-one, returning you five hundred and forty-two Belize dollars. They then proceed to sell you a draft for two hundred and seventy-one U.S. dollars. The selling rate is two point zero-one-seven-five, which translates into five hundred and forty-six dollars and seventy-four cents Belize. Add on a bank charge of one and a quarter percent, government tax of one and a quarter percent and a ten dollar charge for the draft itself and you come up with a grand total of five hundred and seventy dollars and thirty-five cents. This amounts to an added cost of twenty-eight dollars and thirty-five cents on your hundred share purchase, or a premium of over five percent.

If that sounds like a lot of juice to pay for a transaction that never should have been necessary in the first place, there’s a little better news at Scotia Bank. When we went there for a draft, the transaction was a lot simpler. They charge a simple fee of half a percent plus ten dollars and ninety cents for the draft. In the case of our hundred shares for two hundred and seventy-one U.S. dollars, this comes to a total of five hundred and fifty-five, sixty-two, or a premium of only thirteen dollars and sixty-two cents. What the folks at Scotia did emphasize, however, is that not just anyone can walk in and exchange cash for a draft. They want you to be known to them as a customer and be convinced that the U.S. cash you are giving them came from a legitimate source and is not the product of money laundering.

So there you have it. Collect your greenbacks and find a friendly banker… and before I forget, there is one bit of good news from the Central Bank. Believe it or not, the institution that won’t take cash is happy to do something that most merchants wouldn’t dare–that is, take a personal cheque. Governor Campbell told us that with the month long gap between payment and acceptance of the purchase, the bank has plenty of time to see that your U.S. cheque is good.