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Choice Bank of Belize faces liquidity problems

The Choice bank of Belize, after 10 years in the market, is facing serious problems that have driven it to declare an immediate suspension of cash withdrawals from deposit accounts, as well as other payment activities, among which reloading Wire Card cards, savings for paying employees, essential supplements for central, consultancy and counselling operations.

The Central Bank of Belize, which regulates the banks, refused to give more information even though the Caporaso & Partners law firm of Panama, which represents several of the bank’s clients, is pressing them to issue an official communication ad explain in detail the situation that the bank is going through.

According to an official statement sent to its clients, the Choice Bank recognizes that the problem originated from a situation that involved the prepaid card component of its international baking business but, being prepaid cards, it seems like a badly told story. Faced with this, the Bank had to adopt said decision ‘in the best interest of its depositors and other creditors”, with the objective of budgeting cash flow within the present liquidity crisis it is facing.
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For Ad Kees, vice-president of the Bank and Investment Services at Choice, the liquidity crunch that the bank is facing is very recent. “Until April 9 we were sending transfers to our customers and now we’re working to find a solution as soon as possible,” he affirmed.

The suspension of Choice’s afore mentioned activities will stay in place until the regulatory authorities and/or the Bank itself feel that the moratorium can be lifted. Despite these serious complications in its operations, Choice explained in its communication that “it maintained a strong balance-sheet with a capital equity total, including capital paid and retained earnings, of more than 26 million Now the Bank admits its problems; even though as far back as November 2017, in a decision that surprised its customers, it had already begun to request a wide variety of documents of its accountholders to delay any intentions of withdrawing money from accounts as much as possible.

The Panamanian firm Caporaso & Partners invites the bank’s customers to join together for possibly presenting a class action suit. Those who are interested in conferring on Caporaso & Partners their representation can contact the attorney Caporaso Gottlieb at [email protected].

Choice has been in operation since 2008. It was constituted under the International Bank Law of 1966, which allows international businesses and people not residing in Belize to obtain bank accounts in this country. Choice’s accounts are not subject to local taxes or exchange restrictions and funds in foreign currencies are transferred freely with the requirement of converting to Belize dollars.

Choice has been considered one of the principal banks of Belize, a small country located on the eastern coast of Central America in the Western Caribbean, just below the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and to the east of Guatemala. For a long time, Belize was a British colony and member of the Commonwealth, until it gained its independence in 1981.

The Central American country’s government has bet on converting the nation into a center of referral for financial services and has applied policies responsive to the development of e-commerce and international banking. According to the International Monetary Fund, Belize is an important offshore financial center, beginning with “the exemption from taxes, low registration fees and a law of flexible trust that facilitates trusts for protection of assets.”
 

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Thank you for sharing the information. I tried to open an account with them for some years ago but failed, seems I was lucky.
 
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Conversation with Ad Kees, Vice-President Banking and Investment Services, Choice Bank:
Kees: Currently I cannot give you a reliable timeframe. Once I do I will let you know immediately
Caporaso: Months or years? We should ask the authorities for the bank liquidation?
Kees: Rather months than years. I won't comment on your second suggestion.
Hello,
i've sent an email about the Choice Bank problem to this email:

[email protected]

and by your "secure form" on the site, have i sent to wrong address?

I'm pretty sure your services can help me to resolve this bad situation.
 
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this gentleman from the bank is playing our part and our work. We have money in accounts for years, and now we can not take the money out of them. the card is no longer loaded and the FirstChoice Pay says they are in talk, but I do not see anything concrete from them!
 
Central Bank of Belize doesn’t take action when faced with Choice’s lack of liquidity

The Choice Bank of Belize, after 10 years on the market, is passing through a strong liquidity crisis that has driven it to stop withdrawal of money by its accountholders. The problem is very serious; however, in such a complex context, the Central Bank of Belize’s – which has the objective of regulating the Central American country’s financial system, as well as issuing the nation’s currency – lack of action is astonishing. The Choice Bank’s accountholders are extremely worried about the situation of their assets. The law firm Caporaso & Partners got in contact with the Central Bank of Belize with the objective of receiving an answer to its multiple concerns about the subject; however, this institution offered the following as its single, insufficient answer: “We aren’t allowed, by our statutes, to respond to your specific questions. Direct your specific requests to the Choice Bank.”

To the accountholders, who have trusted said bank, this “answer” seems to be a taunt. All of them had previously contacted the Choice Bank, but it didn’t offer any information, beyond a brief statement where it admitted that “a problem with the prepaid cards” has affected the freeze on the accounts.

In this statement, the Choice Bank admitted that it maintains a positive balance sheet, with retained accumulated earnings of more than 26 million dollars. This information doesn’t seem credible, because otherwise the financial institution wouldn’t have frozen its accountholders’ assets.

The Central Bank of Belize recognizes its mission and objective as ensuring the country’s financial stability and economic growth. In the case of Choice, the Central Bank has done the complete opposite, because by not offering information it has created distrust over Belize’s financial system.

The Choice Bank had obtained an international banking license, Class A, through which it could carry out transactions through its business office in Belize. To maintain the license, it had to have a minimum authorized paid capital of 3,000,000 USD and it’s the responsibility of the Central Bank of Belize that they comply with this. Therefore, if the Choice Bank has problems and the banking authority of the country doesn’t intervene in time, this shows a lack of compliance of its functions.

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I have a question Mr. Caporaso and Partners, do you think these accounts have insurance, and say they do not have liquidity, but I wonder how much they can keep this state of crisis? Legislation does not impose a certain period. If they lack liquidity, they need a financial injection. The Belize Central Bank must solve this problem, it is their responsibility and should not hide it!
 
Hello. I am in the same situation, I already emailed to FirstChoice and Choice Bank and got the same answers. The vice-president stopped replying to me . I am contacting the lawyer mentioned above on Monday, first thing in the morning.
I was wondering the same thing as you Mr Nicolae Ciobanu, there is limit anyway :(
Judging by the name only,if you are romanian you can contact me.If not please excuse me.
 
Paxum is affected also, from all i know. They are issuing new cards with another bank.
Paxum can wire transfer, customer's money are in Paxum.
My money are in Choice Bank- frozen. I have no idea why they were in there and not in FirstChoice.
 
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