I have not experienced such sloppy processing of GIRO payment by a bank. In Aug I received a notification from IRS that my application was rejected. I immediately went to the OCBC branch to update my signature as well as resubmit the giro form. Now one and a half month later, I received another notification from IRS stating the same reason for rejection. What has OCBC Bank been doing all this while - more than one month and then with the stroke of one pen, some smart employer decided on the fate of the application!!! And there is no way I can complain to OCBC Bank as they do not provide any proper channel to lodge a complaint either through their call centre or website. Worse, despite being assured by the call centre the branch manager will contact me - it has been hours and nobody call. What is management doing about this disreputational conduct of its staff members???

In June 2015 the bank in my country of origin (referred herein as "A") advised they were closing their branch on 30/11/15. As I am now living in SE Asia I decided to transfer my holdings to a bank in Singapore. I selected OCBC as they could accept most of my securities. In early September we flew to Singapore where we opened a joint account and met our new relationships manager (JCH).

So far so good, but soon worrisome signs started to appear. JCH did respond late (up to 2 weeks) or not at all to my e-mails or calls. His excuse was that while travelling or attending conferences he was out of communication. In my experience with other banks if the relationship manager is unavailable for whatever reason somebody else will step in. I asked whether OCBC did not have a similar arrangement. I recieved an e-mail from Ms KSI saying that she was the back-up.

Initially there appeared to be a misunderstanding between the two banks as to how the transfer of the securities should be arranged. On 15/10/15 "A" sent an e-mail to JCH clearly setting out their requirements. It was only 1 month later after several e-mails and calls from both "A" and myself that JCH advised "A" that he was attending to the matter. When the deadline approached and there was still no news I contacted both JCH and KSI, neither of whom responded.. Finally, I was able to speak to JCH who told me (subsequently confirmed by e-mail) that he had sent the required forms to "A". However, the bank informed me that nothing was recieved and consequently I was forced to sell all my securities.

On 7/12/15 I sent a complaint report to OCBC. A reply came from KSI, who tried to put the blame on "A" by saying that the first time they heard from the bank was early November (not true, see above) She offered 3 alternatives: 1) close my account; 2) change relationships manager; and 3) get an unspecified discount. I told her that in order to make an informed decision I needed 2 things: 1) Some assurance that the tardiness in responding to customers was not common practice; and 2) proof that the forms had been sent to "A". She replied that an answer would be sent within a few days. When I heard nothing, I sent a reminder. Still no reply.

I then sent a message to Mr Muhammed Hafiz Bin Aidi (8/2/16), who heads OCBC's complaints division, explaining the situation and advising that I wished to close my account. He never answered. Instead I recieved several reminders from OCBC to top up my account. The next thing I did was to send a registred letter to OCBC's Customers Assurance Department, who I was told were the appropriate department. I gave them some background information and told them that my account had still not been closed. Could they please advise as soon as did had been done. I never heard back from them. Till this day I am still recieving monthly statements (showing a balance of zero SGD).

In conclusion: initially I thought that the problem lied with an incompetent individual, but with time it became apparent that poor sevice is symptomatic of the organization as a whole. Of particular concern is that I was lied to, ie the forms were apparently never sent.