WILLEMSTAD - The PSB-Bank appears to stop the interest accrual on savings accounts on the date of the death of an account holder. The bank has been doing this since 1905, but that is unacceptable, the judge in Willemstad ruled recently.
The father of the heirs in question held a savings account at PSB-Bank and died in January 2019. It then took 33 months before the certificates of inheritance were issued to the heirs by the notary. The notarial documents were submitted to PSB-Bank with the request to transfer the balance of the account to the Dutch bank account of the heirs living in the Netherlands, and then to close the savings account.
Despite repeated requests, the balance was not transferred, after which the heirs filed a complaint with Consumers Interest Foundation Curaçao in November 2021. Due to the involvement of the foundation, the balance was transferred, but after converting the balance from guilders to euros, the foundation found a difference of 2,500 guilders to the detriment of the heirs. The PSB-Bank appears to stop the interest accrual on savings accounts on the date of the death of an account holder.
Curaçao Consumer Interests Foundation
Maria van Os of the Curaçao Consumer Interests Foundation: “If an account holder dies, PSB-Bank passes on the balance of the date of death to heirs. By failing to register father's death in 2019, PSB Bank passed on the balance with interest until November 2021 to the heirs in this matter. PSB-Bank subsequently deducted interest from the balance for almost three years on the transfer to the heirs. If PSB Bank had not made this “mistake”, we would never have found out that PSB Bank stops the interest on savings accounts as standard on the day of the death of an account holder. In this case, therefore, it concerned interest over a period of almost three years.”
The heirs in this matter also found the actions of PSB-Bank extremely strange but also unfair: “The money in our father's savings account belonged to him, and after his death to the heirs. PSB-Bank never owned the money of our hard-working and hard-saving father, so why should PSB-Bank be entitled to the interest after his death? Moreover, this was a matter of principle for us and we also wondered how many heirs of other deceased account holders have been duped in this way in the past.”
Unreasonably onerous
The consumer organization successfully invoked the fact that the article in the general terms and conditions of PSB-Bank stating that the bank stops accruing interest on the day of the death of the account holder can be regarded as unreasonably onerous. The foundation also invoked the special duty of care that banks have towards third parties, in this case the heirs, and the Legislations and Guidelines of the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten.
Appointment
In a reaction in the press in February in response to a post on Facebook by Consumer Interests Curaçao, PSB-Bank indicated that it has had agreements with its customers since 1905: “According to this agreement, the savings account ceases to accrue interest with the death of the client.”
Now that the judge has ruled otherwise, this agreement will certainly have to be changed, according to Van Os: “Heirs of account holders of PSB Bank have been duped for so many years, probably without their knowledge. The balance in bank accounts has a limitation period of 20 years. Heirs of account holders can therefore reclaim the unpaid interest up to 20 years ago. Especially when it comes to savings accounts with a high balance and it took a long time before the inheritance was settled, this can be a fairly high amount of interest. Heirs who believe they have been duped by PSB-Bank can report to Curaçao Consumers Interest Foundation.”