Cuban doctor to Banco Metropolitano: "How long is the story going to be with the ATMs?"

ServiceATMs of theMetropolitan Bank of Havana (BANMET) continues to be deplorable, according to a Cuban doctor who denounced on her social networksHe described the situation as “electronic clowning.”.

Despite multiple complaints from the population, even reported by the country's official press, the ATMs of the aforementioned bank continue to be affected by breakdowns, unavailability of cash or out of service due to lack of electricity supply.

“Let's see Banco Metropolitano S.A.” How long will the story be with the ATMs?... I think this electronic antics is getting 'a little bit' out of hand," complained the Cuban doctor identified on social networks as Liliana Montalvo Bécquer.

In a publication ofFacebook, the young woman addressed the directors of the entity to make them participate in the odyssey that it meant for her to access one of its terminals to carry out an electronic operation.

“Those from Line and A are now 'filling' them with money because 'they don't have it.' The one on 23rd and Montero (yes, because there are four and only one works) is off. And here I am, in the queue at 23 and 8 (where there are two and only one works), surrounded by elderly people,” she said.

Among the comments provoked by the publication, a user celebrated as “the best definition” Montalvo Bécquer's description of “electronic clown” [sic] to describe the claims of a bank that barely manages to offer an effective ordinary service, but that does not cease to launch new electronic services in a country that barely has the necessary infrastructure to supply Cubans with electricity.

At the end of July, a BANMET announcement lit up social networksby inviting your customers to pay with a debit or credit card in Cuban wineries, causing an avalanche of critical comments and ridicule from citizens.

“We will never eat because, if we need the magnetic card, without electricity we will never be able to buy food,” said one user, alluding to the constant and prolonged blackouts that affected the population during the summer months.

Around the same time, the entity reported on its social networks that it was beginning to implement in the capitalthe home delivery service for magnetic cards NETWORK of savings accounts in CUP or USD.

With the announcement, the banking institution intended to convey an image of modernization in the midst of a cash availability crisis in its network of ATMs, which forced its Havana users(many of them pensioners) to staymore than 15 days without money withdrawal service.

According to the official newspaper Tribuna de La Habana, there are about 500 ATMs in Havana, but in mid-July around 100 did not offer service to the population, either due to lack of banknotes or breakage.

Given the poor technical conditions and the shortage of ATMs, at the beginning of 2022 BANMET decidedincrease extra cash service and incorporate pharmacies and post offices into the modality, allowing their clients to withdraw up to 1,000 Cuban pesos per day in certain commercial establishments.

A provision of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security in April ensured that more Cuban pensioners could collect their retirement through magnetic cards, at the same time that it increased the number of people who receive monetary benefits from Social Assistance in this way.

“Improvement of the means of payment of social security pensioners. It was agreed to migrate from the electronic payroll to the magnetic card, for all pensioners who are paid in the BANMET and BANDEC bank branches and for 20% of the BPA,” the ministry reported.

Given the fiasco of these electronic initiatives by state banking entities, managed by a government that barely manages to generate and supply electrical energy in a stable manner, the definition of “electronic antics” summarizes the discomfort of many users.