witness tells FINSAC Enquiry his loan became a credit card

[MdmeX]

witness tells FINSAC Enquiry his loan became a credit card debt









The latest witness before the FINSAC Commission of Enquiry Tuesday morning expressed shock at how his loan from the National Commercial Bank (NCB) to purchase a truck engine became a credit card debt.

Llewelyn Bailey, a farmer, said a default judgement now stands against him after he was sued for more than $1.8 million as he was unable to repay the debt.

Mr. Bailey repeatedly shook his head while giving his testimony, stopping intermittently to say he was confused.

He attempted to indicate the disparity in what he was told he owed.

"It started at $320,000, then it (went down) to $250,000 yet December 1996 then it goes to $544,000, then it goes down to $464,000, then it goes up to $460,000, then it goes to $470,000, then $420,000, then it goes to $306,000 and then it was at $296,000 then it was at $808,000. I’m confused," Mr. Bailey said.

He blamed several factors for his inability to service his original loan of 250 thousand dollars in 1996.

Among them were the high interest rates two years later which resulted in NCB seizing his truck, his only source of income, after he was unable to pay.

Never owned a credit card
Another factor was the transfer of his debt four times, moving from NCB to the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC), the Jamaican Redevelopment Foundation and then to International Assets and Services Limited.

International Assets is listed as a debt collector on the website Loan Jamaica.

In 2008, Mr. Bailey was sued by the company for more than $1.8 million even though he claimed he was only contacted by the debt collector once.

Mr. Bailey told the Commission that in building his defence, his attorney requested all his credit information from the company and it was revealed he was being sued for non-payment on two alleged credit card accounts.
But he contended that he has never owned a credit card.

Still, a judgement has been brought against him, as he was unable to defend his case or repay the debt.

Mr. Bailey said he has been left to wonder how a loan for a truck engine was transformed into a credit card debt. (Just ask Karl to explain)

[Karl]

Why me?

...all that means is those managing the man's debt show a certain level of their mismanagement...unless the man has left out information that he agreed...contracted to such an arrangement?

The reports and or the reported utterances make it plain to those without blinders that much information on the individual finanacial arrangements with the various financial institutions on those personal and business loans have not been aired.

It appears to me that the truth of the various arrangements is of no concern. It is all about 'killing' the government of the day.

I guess it would not be a stretch to term these hearings "the lyiad hearings"...as it is massive lying by omission that is being reported.

...unless in each case the financial institutions had no contract arrangements with these borrowers that allowed for the repossessions, call-in of loans, foreclosures, seizures and other actions but rather engaged in fraudulent and illegal acts - e.g. preparing loan agreements and illegally attaching borrowers names and signatures to same and then instituting measures for which there was no legal right?

[Willi]

Yes, everyone incompetent except for the GOJ..

ROTFLMAO

So why the finger always reverting to the Govt? Is so all the wicked people hate the nice and innocent guvvament suh? Bwoy ah tell yuh.

[Karl]

Yes, everyone incompetent except for the GOJ..

ROTFLMAO

So why the finger always reverting to the Govt? Is so all the wicked people hate the nice and innocent guvvament suh? Bwoy ah tell yuh.

...I guess you never thought of some of the ramifications of what you are imputing before you made the post...

...and I know you could not have seen the complete post - because I thought some persons may not have followed down the path of some of those ramifications - as you were posting I was making additions to mine above.

[Gamma]

no not the GOJ ... read between the lines nuh willi ......

[Muadib]

'killing the Govt of the day' ??

Why would we do that.. dem nevah duh nutting wrang... ah juss cayliss business people tek out loan and use dem private assets as collateral and nevah factor in 100% interest rates at some point..

I am sure they have learned their lesson..

[Karl]

Farmer blames 'unfair' creditors for his debt...

'killing the Govt of the day' ??

Why would we do that.. dem nevah duh nutting wrang... ah juss cayliss business people tek out loan and use dem private assets as collateral and nevah factor in 100% interest rates at some point..

I am sure they have learned their lesson..

Well according to the below -

Farmer blames 'unfair' creditors for his debt at Finsac commission of enquiry

Published: Friday | April 15, 2011




St Catherine farmer Llewellyn Bailey claims that unfair treatment by his creditors and his inability to continue paying his lawyer after high interest rates drove him broke, led to his debts growing from $320,000 in 1996 to more than $1.5 million by 2008, despite making several payments.
Bailey told the FINSAC Commission of Enquiry on Tuesday that, in his view, he was treated unfairly by his creditors - National Commercial Bank (NCB), the Financial Sector Adjustment Company and collection agency International Asset Services (IAS).

He said that he borrowed $250,000 in mid-1996 and another $70,000 within a month. Yet, having made payments toward the loan, including a full payment of $70,000 to liquidate the second account, NCB's records reflected within some two years that he was owing more than three times the original principal amount.

"I have never understood how these figures have been arrived at," Bailey told the enquiry.

He also noted that a judgment has been entered against him in the Supreme Court for some $1.5 million, which he claimed was based on very incorrect and incomplete data available from his creditors, primarily because he could not afford to pursue his defence.

"I could not afford to continue to pay my attorney, and she returned my file to me," Bailey told commissioners Worrick Bogle and Charles Ross, as the enquiry resumed at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston, after a one-week break.

He was supported by the commission's attorney, Judith Clarke, who said that based on his statement to the enquiry, the incongruity of the records he obtained from his creditors when he sought information to validate his case, suggested that they did not deal with him fairly.

truck seized
Mr Bailey told the commission that the $250,000 he borrowed in 1996 was for the purchase of an engine for a 1989 Leyland truck. The additional $70,000 was to clear it from the wharves.

The truck was seized in 1997 and remained parked for about a year, after which he negotiated its return by making a lump sum payment of $100,000 on his debt and agreeing to pay $50,000 per month. However, he could not commence the monthly payments immediately as the truck's windscreen was broken and a battery stolen while in the bank's custody, and there was a delay in the bank paying to replace them.

"When I eventually got back the truck, I suffered several setbacks and was unable to make the payments," Bailey said, disclosing that NCB repossessed the truck again in late 1999.

"I was told to take the truck to Cars 'R' Us, which I did. Thereafter, I received no correspondence from NCB," he said. However, in 2005, he received a letter from IAS, a collection agency operating in Jamaica, stating that he owed $1.2 million in principal and $360,878 in interest.
He said that a letter purported to be sent to him by IAS in 2003, but which he did not receive, claimed he had two credit card accounts with NCB.

"To me, these sums bore no relationship to the two small amounts I borrowed in 1996, and the account numbers quoted in that letter were not familiar to me," Bailey told the enquiry.

His truck was sold in 2000. A judgment has since been entered against him in the Supreme Court which, he said, was based on incorrect and incomplete data, because he could not afford to keep his attorney.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...usiness71.html

[Karl]

Bank Management also responsible - Paul Chen-Young

'Banks' management also responsible'

Published: Friday | April 15, 2011


Dr Paul Chen-Young ... appeared via video link.

Former chairman of the Eagle Group of Companies, Dr Paul Chen-Young, said the management of banks and other financial institutions taken over by the government during the financial crisis of the 1990s must bear some of the responsibility.
However, he said the hostile financial environment as a consequence of high interest rates "made it extremely difficult to survive on a normal basis and forced entities into directions they would not normally have gone."

"One could almost say that (financial conglomerates) were like a ship going to sea with calm waters and then having to face numerous hurricanes," he said while testifying at the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC) commission of enquiry into the financial crisis via videoconferencing from abroad yesterday.

He went on to suggest that the economic cost of selling off the bad debts created by financial institutions is set to have a negative long-term effect on Jamaica's balance of payment over the coming years.

"Economic costs is not a one-off transition, it's a cost that will continue over the years," said Chen-Young.

"As a result of how FINSAC divested the entities, we will have severe consequences on our balance of payment, and by this I mean these entities that were sold," he said.

Chen-Young, whose Eagle Group was taken over by FINSAC during the financial meltdown in the 1990s, added that "the profits earned will have a drain on our balance of payment going on infinitum."

According to the former banker, FINSAC has failed to live up to its mandate carried in the entity's 1988 annual report, suggesting that it should have provided the necessary support for the Eagle conglomerate to be viable by substituting high-cost funds for low-cost funds.

"When we look at the operation of FINSAC, there is no financial institution that got the sort of assistance for which it was mandated, not one," said Chen-Young.

slapped with a lawsuit
The former banker, who began his career with the World Bank in 1966 before starting his own business in 1975, emigrated to the United States after he was slapped with a lawsuit by Eagle Merchant Bank and Crown Eagle Life Insurance Company, two firms he founded but which were taken over by the Government.

The suit charged that two business transactions by Chen-Young, on behalf of his Ajax Investment Limited and Domville Limited, constituted breaches of fiduciary duty, breaches of contract and negligence.

He has since written a book, The Entrepreneurial Journey in Jamaica: When Policies Derail, in which he describes how he saw the financial collapse which wiped out a number of indigenous firms and left many individuals indebted to the financial institutions.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...business4.html

[Lazie]

'Banks' management also responsible'

Published: Friday | April 15, 2011


Dr Paul Chen-Young ... appeared via video link.

Former chairman of the Eagle Group of Companies, Dr Paul Chen-Young, said the management of banks and other financial institutions taken over by the government during the financial crisis of the 1990s must bear some of the responsibility.
However, he said the hostile financial environment as a consequence of high interest rates "made it extremely difficult to survive on a normal basis and forced entities into directions they would not normally have gone."

"One could almost say that (financial conglomerates) were like a ship going to sea with calm waters and then having to face numerous hurricanes," he said while testifying at the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC) commission of enquiry into the financial crisis via videoconferencing from abroad yesterday.

He went on to suggest that the economic cost of selling off the bad debts created by financial institutions is set to have a negative long-term effect on Jamaica's balance of payment over the coming years.

"Economic costs is not a one-off transition, it's a cost that will continue over the years," said Chen-Young.

"As a result of how FINSAC divested the entities, we will have severe consequences on our balance of payment, and by this I mean these entities that were sold," he said.

Chen-Young, whose Eagle Group was taken over by FINSAC during the financial meltdown in the 1990s, added that "the profits earned will have a drain on our balance of payment going on infinitum."

According to the former banker, FINSAC has failed to live up to its mandate carried in the entity's 1988 annual report, suggesting that it should have provided the necessary support for the Eagle conglomerate to be viable by substituting high-cost funds for low-cost funds.

"When we look at the operation of FINSAC, there is no financial institution that got the sort of assistance for which it was mandated, not one," said Chen-Young.

slapped with a lawsuit
The former banker, who began his career with the World Bank in 1966 before starting his own business in 1975, emigrated to the United States after he was slapped with a lawsuit by Eagle Merchant Bank and Crown Eagle Life Insurance Company, two firms he founded but which were taken over by the Government.

The suit charged that two business transactions by Chen-Young, on behalf of his Ajax Investment Limited and Domville Limited, constituted breaches of fiduciary duty, breaches of contract and negligence.

He has since written a book, The Entrepreneurial Journey in Jamaica: When Policies Derail, in which he describes how he saw the financial collapse which wiped out a number of indigenous firms and left many individuals indebted to the financial institutions.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...business4.html

Wait, why people a sugarcoat wha the man say? How there is nothing in the proess where he said he merged various assets involved in Tourism, Insurance, Banking etc to set up a Fund and (his words) as if to sabotage him the gov't put out a paper with a 50% return?

The Gestapo Gov't did a magnificent job of driving fear into those who were willing to take a risk.

Bring back Omar ..... I'd love to get in pon dem 50% paper deh!

[Gamma]

i believe that bad management was an issue in some cases however Omar did not try to find the bad ones...he painted EVERYONE with a broad brush and that was just plain wrong to do in such a delicate sector of the economy, it cannot be justified.

i really wonder if karl believes that ALL the institutions that were shut down were being badly run .... to the point where FINSACing was the right thing to do in every case.

btw wi neva si Ennis a endorse OLINT ... whtiher are thou Jiggs?

[Jawge]

The time you take posting this you would look up Bamking in medieval Europe and post it here. Many a questions would be answered then.

[Don1]

Banks ONLY fail due to bad management... bad underwriting, lack of collateral, bad risk assessment or inadequate reserves or bad investments... insurance companies as well... but add extreme natural disasters to the list of failure points for them.
Those financial institutions got involved in real estate speculation... long term investments with short term money... and empire building based on a bubble...aided and abetted by ******** poor Govt policy

The businesses that borrowed from them at those usurious & fluctuating rates... that's a different matter altogether... dem mi sarry fah