Where’s my money, CIMB?
July 23, 2008
Lil’ hummingbird dropped by in court today, hovered at my ear and whispered, ‘Check out Helpless’s letter to the Star today’.
Seems CIMB’s outsourcing of their cheque clearing has gone awry.
Real awry.
Major software problem, it seems.
Resulting in some 20,000 – 30,000 cheques, or more, having gone through the clearing system, but the sums involved not reaching the intended accounts.
July 23, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Yes I read the complaint in The Star today. The complainant says that a CIMB staff reluctantly said it was an outsourcing problem.
The CIMB CEO is none other than Nazir Tun Razak. Kalimullah’s paper once said he was ‘Malaysia’s best merchant banker’. I think someone also said ‘Khairy Jamaludin is Malaysia’s best investment banker’. Reminds me of the hilarious laughter scene in Junglebook where Mowgli is teased by the monkeys after the Jazz number at the temple.
CIMB’s outsourcing of cheque processing is possibly handled by Dato Azman Yahya (Excuse the spelling but is it Symphony? Simfoni? Sumfoni? Somefoni?).
The complainant says he banked his cheques LAST month.
Woi! Today is the 23rd lah! That is a month, and the cheques have not cleared? Since the system has gone haywire, the moneys also must have gone haywire.
I am going to check my CIMB account first thing tomorrow morning. Mana tahu? Maybe there is some unexpected cash in there. Just out of curiosity, if there is extra cash in my account, do I get to keep it? Or do I have to return it? What if CIMB cannot tell me where the money came from or whom it belongs to?
If the bungle is real, I think CIMB can get sued big time. Imagine the number of cheques that may have bounced because CIMB did not clear the funds on time.
July 23, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Tun Razak must be wondering how he produced Buffoons as children………
Neeway, he is paying for his karma after his death, for clandestinely getting the Malays and Chinese clash in May 1969, which made an excuse for him to get the PMship
July 23, 2008 at 7:19 pm
FYI. CIMB not very safe. Cheques get diverted for a month, and not clear ? Need to monitor closely.
July 23, 2008 at 7:34 pm
I faced the problem late last month. They double debited my a/c. Took them about a week to realise that and to rectify. No apology, no letter, no press release. Some people got extra cash and some must of “lost” some cash. This problem was highlighted in Malaysiakini about a month back.
We got a bank negara which did nothing about it so far. and we got a bank which quietly trying to correct their negligence not warning the customers of potential hardship.
That’s malaysian style business ethics and super efficient award winning bank negara governor’s supervision.
July 23, 2008 at 8:13 pm
I heard abt this 3 weeks ago from a friend whose cheque was also not cleared. My husband’s driver complained that his salary for June ‘08 was not credited into his account up till now. Can you imagine that! He has a family to support for goodness sake! So many people were caught off guard. Nobody from the bank and Bank Negara gave any explanation or publish the predicament in the media. What kinda bankers do we have? And I thought MBB was so bad!!! Everybody should abandon CIMB for good!
July 23, 2008 at 8:26 pm
What is Bank Negara doing, not monitoring. Everyone on autopilot, no one knows what is going on.How on earth will foreign investment come to this country when this stupid thing can happen. I did not beleive when my friend related this last week.When I read today’s Star I was shocked. No apology from bank but excuses. Responsibility rest with Bank Negara to make sure banks adhere to policy..
July 23, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Another pet project by BN cronies down the drain. Seems like whatever they touch turn to s**t. Will there be an inquiry by Bank Negara in this matter? Will the customers be compensated for this fiasco? Knowing Malaysia and ‘em buffoons up there with their weird habit of bungling every step of the way…an emphatic NO!!!
SNAFU indeed. (Situation Normal All F***ked Up)
July 23, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Ah ! the poison leached into the system over 22 ‘glorious’ years is beginning to take its toll.
“Competence” is not what it seems …skimmed milk masquerades as cream (with profound apologies to Alexander Pope)
July 23, 2008 at 8:55 pm
I wanna to boycott CIMB! But my company still used this acc for our month salary Bank in, fxxx!
July 23, 2008 at 8:55 pm
i have a friend that works in CIMB..and she says that the situation is REAL bad. But CEO is related to DPM..so Bank Negara keeps quiet?
July 23, 2008 at 9:11 pm
This is very serious !! Bank Negara should come out with some answers otherwise ppl will think CIMB is in deep trouble. Or are they really in trouble ???
July 23, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Singapura dapat kawasan perairan lagi (nak claim kawasan lebih besar)…
betul…
si bangang rais yatim patut naik gunung lepas tu terjun..
Apa ke jadah win-win situation
July 23, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Here in my little midwest bank in the US if you report a debit item on your bank account the bank is obliged to investigate. If no solution found within 1 week, the bank is obliged to credit that amount back into your account pending final solution of the problem. This is to ensure that customers would still have access to that amount while investigations are going on.
Bank Negara, are you listening?
July 23, 2008 at 10:03 pm
There’s a golden rule for those NOT of a particular race.Never put your money in a bank owned and controlled by politicians in power.That includes apart from CIMB, Malayan Banking,etc, etc(use a bit of research and you will get the list.
Just bank in those NOT on this list-GET IT???
July 23, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Presumably, an affected party should have written to Bank Negara to compain about this matter. If no one communicates with Bank Negara, then they can’t act either, since no complaint has been received. I hope at least one of the affected parties has done so.
Another issue is whether CIMB will be liable for any customer being affected by being placed on credit watch / black list due to its (CIMB) failure to credit the account holder at the appropriate time.
Bottom line is that it should be reasonable for the customer to expect and receive specific performance for the consideration (fees) that has been made. Failure to do so is grounds for legal action. If it is the failure of the outsourced party, CIMB should then sue the provider of that service.
July 23, 2008 at 10:28 pm
ah, then, maybe that outsource company is also related to, you know who-lah ….. can never say. anything is possible. check further and you’ll find the shareholders and directors are all related. typical, isn’t it? People are not unreasonable, it’s the politicians and their cronies that are not only unreasonable but down right brazen about the whole matter! the rakyat is really, really, really, really, really fed-up. Please change the government!
July 23, 2008 at 10:30 pm
hahha..cimb! i had problem clearing my cek as well..early july. It wasnt a big amount, just few hundred, but it took them nearly 15days to clear!!!
and yet the customer service ppl never had the courage to admit its their fault, they just said its normal and asked me to check my account again..
damn!
July 23, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Seems to be there’s much bungle in the jungle in BN territory.
July 23, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Dato’ Nasir Razak, is nothing more than a premature child in the banking industry. He is also the main culprit in stopping the lowest paid staff in the commercial banking industry from getting a fairer wage increase recently.
Dato’ … please just do us a favour and get the hell out of the banking industry before you ruin CIMB and jeopardize the livelihood of all the workers. But before that, stop the outsourcing and give the job back to the permanent staff who never had any problem in getting the job done in the past.
July 23, 2008 at 11:29 pm
“Run on the Bank”!
July 23, 2008 at 11:49 pm
CIMB… China, India, Melayu Bank. no problem they share share and kongsi kongsi mah!
July 24, 2008 at 12:05 am
Interruption to cash flow can REALLY hurt the SMEs out there, who are the driving force of the economy and employment. Hurt the SMEs, and you hurt the whole country. Nice one, CIMB!
July 24, 2008 at 12:09 am
Ha, world class bank which is going to conquer the whole Asia? CIMB, MBB,etc? How pathetic.
These flurs transfer billions oversea to purchase other country’s banks (big chunks of shares)under the pretext of “business expansion” (billions of KH money which belong to the Rakyat), and yet the Bolehland Guomen prevent others from purchasing big chunks of shares of the local banks.How ironic?
The Guomen think other people are stupid? The truth is these countries welcome the Banks from Bolehland to pump in bilions to save their banks.
Why not? White Knights from the Heaven.
July 24, 2008 at 12:17 am
Major software problem? For so long? Head of IT buat apa? Coma ka?
That guy should be fired!
July 24, 2008 at 12:33 am
I started off with Southern Bank and was very happy with their service. Then CIMB took over and everything seems to have gone to ratsh*t. I have been trying to cancel my credit card with them since early June 2008. Up till today, I have yet to receive a confirmation from them. Pity, SBB was doing well then.
July 24, 2008 at 1:01 am
If they are not careful there will be a bank run. That may cause our financial market to collapse. Bank Negara better step in quickly and try to resolve this. Meanwhile I’ll just get my money out of CIMB and put it in a foreign bank.
July 24, 2008 at 1:10 am
Let me tell you about my friend company’s experience, which have few hundred thousands “stuck”.
1. The cheque clearance was ( or still is ?) outsourced to Symphony (yes, Azman Yahya from Danaharta days). Was told this is not the preferred company by IT people as they doubt the capability. But heard instruction was given by some idiots at the top , higher than CIMB Bank itself.That means even Nazir got no choice.
2. Our cheques never cleared even after 3 weeks but stated as “floating”. Got fed up , cant get thru to branch , they shot a letter that they will issue the cheques regardless they cleared them or not .If they bounced and they lost the business deals, they will sue for damages etc .
3. Letter was cc to BNM , they replied one week later and asked CIMB to give them a report in 2 weeks! What a stupid request! By then, there would have been endless bounced cheques. This showed even BNM is sleeping too.
4. Understand that the system is also used by Ambank and HL Bank but in these 2 banks, you can bank in at the counters (which is not under this Stupidphony) , so less cheques problem.
5. Was told that the system cannot captured the images of the cheques at the machines in CIMB and other banks, that mean as long as they dont replace the machines or allow manual banking in at counters, your chances of “lost” cheques is higher than kena lottery.
Eventually they decided to open new accounts with a foreign bank and will shift all accounts there slowly (scared cheques to transfer fund also cannot clear!)
If one cannot walk properly , dont run. So, I dont know why they go and buy banks overseas, when they cant even run a simple operation here. There are other many problems that surfaced , which wasnt there when they banked with Southern Bank. The backroom operation is so bad that they created so many errors in billings that the sales people are scolded by the customers. Do you think this bank got any future? With all these problems, you make your own conclusion.
July 24, 2008 at 12:36 pm
My friend @ client was ’successfully’ being offered a business loan from CIMB after some negotiation with the officers who were in charge to decide whether to approve the loan or otherwise. the condition for its approval is that my client’s company to ‘contribute’(?) to these officers some 2% or 3% out of the loan sum approved! other than entertaining them with golfing, grand lunches and high end smart phones. Then these officers shall refer this to their friendly penal of solicitors to prepare the loan documentations, who in return will entertain them with the same. So… Corruption Is My Business!
July 24, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I was warned by my Bro in Law a few weeks ago about this. He is in IT and works in a MNC IT company doing some development work for CIMB. Apparently CIMB management does not know what to do. And shit, I just signed up a house refinancing deal with them. I think I must have made a serious big time misjudgement forgetting that CIMB was formerly Bank Bumiputra, and the CEO is Nazir Razak….
July 24, 2008 at 2:42 pm
What can you expect from the sons of Tun Abdul Razak?
Has it got something to do with this family’s genes?
Bad father breds bad sons…
July 25, 2008 at 4:33 am
Someone working with an audit firm told me some of his clients were have a really bad problem with his cashflow because of this.
July 25, 2008 at 5:19 am
[...] http://harismibrahim.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/wheres-my-money-cimb/ [...]
July 25, 2008 at 11:59 am
anon 12.36pm
as ex-banker, let me say such things happen in other places too but in general such payoffs are rare these days. these black sheeps are the minority now. dont think your friend have to pay the 2% to 3% fee (if he qualifies for the loan) coz banking is so competitive these days.
about lawyers, well, there’s always a panel to choose from. and by the way, most banks would have separated the legal appointment functions from the lending office. therefore, your friend should have the liberty to choose and not compelled by the lending officer to use a particular legal firm.
two cents worth from an ex-banker.
July 25, 2008 at 1:57 pm
yh 11.59 a.m
that was one of the conditions set by the lending officer and members of his group. other banks were approached. The applications were not approved. Came to this bank, one of the promises is that we can approve that subject to bla… bla and the payoffs beside those entertainments. with regard to the lawyers, despite being retained by the customer to undertake loan documentations, despite being in the (not so friendly) panel, the officer said we cannot refer to or appoint this lawyer. You should contact this one… Yes this may happen in other places too..despite they are are these days… it happens…
July 25, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I think the real issue here was missed by most commentors. COMMUNICATION. CIMB or the other banks (but CIMB seems to be more affected than the rest) that are affected should notify their customers of the problem and inform them on the action(s) taken to remedy the problem and offer solution(s). I was one of CIMB “unlucky” customers and was affected by the glitch, I had filed complaints through their helpline twice and followed it up with a meeting with one CIMB officer in a branck where I banked IN the check. Although the customer service officers mending the helpline recorded and promised to forward my complaint and informed me they (CIMB) expected the problem to persist for at least another week at that time, they failed to add that it would be better for me to file a complaint in person. When the said week went by and still there was no money in my account I then decided to see someone in the bank that could assist and inform me of the progress of my complaint. An officer attended to me and filed the compalint formally and immediately forwarded it to their clearing centre. Less than a week the cheque had been cleared (online) but when I couldn not withdraw the amount from the account I realised it was still not alright. I immediately asked for an explanation from the helpline and was only then informed I need to go to my branch to make the withdrawal as the amount was being put on “hold” to avoid “double” crediting. I blasted the poor lady (not her fault really and I should apologise to her, unfortunately I had forgotten her name) and said CIMB should inform me (through e-mail/letter/phone call) that I had to do just that. I did and I managed to withdraw the money… So back to the main issue here, CIMB, although I personally think Bank Negara should do it as the directive (to change to this new system) is from them should have make an announcement in the main stream media or through their website of the problem encountereda and give due advice to their customers. This way the customers feel appreciated and would try to be understanding to CIMB’s predicament. So again COMMUNICATION. And by the way getting back at these so called ‘bumiputera’ banks by taking out businesses elsewhere does not serve any purpose other than (maybe it is feasible in this current economic situation) rendering some people unemployed because of downsizing for example. What if one these employees is your family member or a friend? And who among us do not screw up now and then???
July 25, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Class action?
July 26, 2008 at 9:54 am
Foreigners living here on tourist visas are not allowed to have a Malaysian bank account so we must pay absurd fees to our home bank whenever we use PLUS
ATM on Maybank, CIMB etc. It seems from this we are getting off lightly and our money not wind up in the DPM family coffers as seems to be the case here. Symhony seems to have connection to Philharmonic perhaps – another recently revealed crony piggy bank. Wow, to observe Malaysia today.
July 26, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Delara,
I dont agreed with you. To take 4 weeks to clear a cheque is worst than Zimbabwe’s inflation rate. I agreed people screwed up once in a while but this is a self fulfilling prophecy when they decided to choose Symphony, which is not competent to do the job. A mother of all screw up !
This seemed to be the problem of Malaysia Boleh by selecting all the Bodohs,when all the able and capable ones do not get the jobs and only the politically linked stupid ones does.
I never have any problems with my Citibank accounts.
If we expect and tolerate this type of service, then we deserve the inconveniences and sub standard service. Definitely not me and many of my friends and associates as we can find better ones in the market, like Citibank.
August 2, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I am one of the employee of CIMB Bank in one of the branch. In the employee point of view, the top management of CIMB now days are just focus on their achivement (KPI so called). When thing happened on the early stage, branch are not receiving any communication on this matter. None of the top guys wants to take up this responsibility (or shit). Even our group head, just drop us a memo after 2 weeks of this incident, telling us that thing gonna be resolved. The best part was our CEO Nasir Razak….. only giving out his first memo after a month, telling us the same thing……..
At the branch we are the one who facing the customer & the management has not give sufficient support & information to handle this CRISIS, every we only can give a empty promise to our customer. Some of my fellow colleagues work under such a huge pressure & eventually was admitted to hospital. Who care for us? Is not the management but our customer, they really understand our position…. because we can do much.
Just let you all know, the Symphony is a real joker…
The clearing centre in our area only handle by less than 10 fresh school leavers (SPM perhaps). I think they dont even know what is CHEQUE! Imagine with this amount of work force, they need to handle 3 banks (OCBC, HLBB & CIMB) The first 2 was able to recovered in a short period due to the alertness of their management & they have lower voulme of cheque & lesser branches.
Last word for Dato Nazir, please stand out & say something. I know it will be very shame for such a prominant banker like you. But this is the fact that you need to faced, you are the CEO & one of the major shareholder of CIMB. Dont let your staff facing all these alone. Your vision to lead CIMB to be the most valued SEA universal bank is just a dream……. if this issue cant be resolved. But I think now is already too late…. a week later this CRsSIS going to celebrate its 2 months ‘birthday’. Thousand of customer is leaving…….. BUT I think you can achieve your vision…. just take your time go around the SEA countries, shop around & see any bank for sell….. easy job for you right? Yeah Nasir BOLEH!!
August 5, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Software sucks! I wonder whether we should all go back to the days of no computers and systems!
Irrespective of whether the cheque processing is outsourced or not, CIMB must take and face the issues and not put the blame on its contractor(s). As far as we are concerned, we as customers don’t care whether you oursource or process the cheques in-house. We want service.
I agree with Delara the problem is not just the processing and systems issue – this happens everywhere like the recent Bursa Malaysia and Heathrow T5! Communication is very important, and how quick the issues can be resolved. I heard the HLB, Ambank and OCBC also outsourced their cheque processing to Symphony – I suppose Symphony can’t be that bad else i do not expect a foreign bank like OCBC or Kuek Leng Chan of Hong leong will use them. I have also have an account with Hong Leong and i dont face problems with my cheque – maybe i am one of the lucky ones!
CIMB back room sucks – and that’s the reality. I had problems with a cheque i deposited back in October 2007 before they outsource the processing. In fact i had problems with cash deposit, not cheque. The recent problems warrants better understanding and communication by the branch guys and not just put the blame on someone else. If i can show my deposit slip, they should just credit my account and worry about processing my cheque later. Surely they know where to find me if my claim turns out to be fradulent. i hear thats what HSBC is doing to managing their cheque processing problems. My sister who works at HSBC told me that they use the same system as Symphony – supplied by a Singapore company called BCIS or something. Apparently the problem is not the processsing by HSBC or Symphony but this software. Why they decided to use this software is beyond me. I would have thought they would have tested it first but then again, software glitches do happen.
On a happier note, the 3 cheques i deposited during the ‘blackout’ period sometime in 3rd week June were cleared realy July – although i am still sore that it took two weeks. I was assured by the branch manager that the initial teething problems are over and all cheques from July onwards are cleared as normal. I am going to bank in a cheque this afternoon so wish me luck! If you dont hear from me, then i suppose its back to normal….how i long for the days of no systems and computers!!!
August 6, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Haha… so far cimb is the most unprofessional banker in MY i experienced so far. I have not comment about their customer services. However, their IT foundation is very weak. They used to outsourcing to s/w house vendors but no professional candidates to deal with vendors. The best part is what their needs for the system they themselves also blur blur 1. Even now, ALLTELL can go down during working hours, i salute to them. But 1 thing for sure CIMB group are very rich.
October 31, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Just to inform the few million CIMB consumers that they are add it again.
During the June and July 08 cheque fiasco, where cheques was not clearing on time. It has happened again but with a different twist.
Now in October previous cheques that we returned during the July fiasco is now being cleared in October. Oh my goodness.
On top of that the payee bank says it is cleared but CIMB says it doesn’t have the money. Only after countless calls and emails and escalations with faxed documents does some action occur. I didn’t realised it was such a big issue till I googled “CIMB cheque clearing issues” that I find so many blogs and compliants.