Hon. Fahie calls for urgent legislation for 'unhelpful banks'
He made this disclosure during the eighth sitting of the second session of the second House of Assembly (HOA) on April 30, 2013 during the Other Business segment.
The former Education Minister said there were persons in his constituency who lost their jobs, not because they were bad employees but because the areas where they worked were downsizing. Some companies, he noted, suffered because the economy was not booming as much as it had been before and were forced to downsize as a result.
According to Hon. Fahie the constituents were never behind (in mortgage payments) previously but ended up behind eventually due to economic times.
“The specific banks that [constituents] were involved with in terms of their mortgage, etc were not as helpful [as they could be],” he said.
Hon. Fahie did not disclose the names of any banks in his complaint because he felt some of the banks were “doing extremely well”.
“During this economic crisis, it became more and more evident to me, that just like how we are protecting the financial services, which we must; we must (also) move towards some legislation… to encourage them to do some better work.” He encouraged Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr The Hon. D. Orlando Smith to become involved in discussions to this effect with the banks.
The First District Representative stated that banks make their money from interest and with all the foreclosures taking place, banks will also foreclose eventually as well. “It’s only sense,” he added.
“Some kind of help has to be given,” Hon. Fahie urged “because our people are not behind (the majority of them) because of negligence. They are behind because the worldwide economy has put them behind.”
Hon. Fahie told the House that there were prominent persons in the society who had many places being rented and were behind because their tenants didn’t have any place to work. He noted that this in turn caused the tenants to not have any money to pay the landlords which forced landlords to be unable to repay loans to the banks.
“It’s a real situation, Madam Speaker, and there is a gentleman in my village that says ‘real people do real things’,” he stated.
He urged the Premier to have conversations with the banking association and the managers at the banks to address the urgent problem that people and businesses were facing.
The former Minister said this couldn’t be done four years ago because the situation wasn’t “this bad”.
“Every four years there will be more to do because life is a continuum… and once you continue to live, you will have challenges, some challenges you [are able to] fix…”
Hon. Fahie asked that urgent regulation be implemented and said he noticed that when rates were dropped for some of the banks by America or the sections governing them from their ‘mother offices’ “we don’t get the same deals here” .
“I have come to realise through this economic crisis now that we do not have the legislation to do it,” Hon. Fahie added.
He further urged the Premier to bring legislation that would not leave the onus up to bank managers who have a good heart to help the people.
“[With] the same speed we’re helping the Financial Services, which we must, I’m asking that that legislation be put in place so that we can safeguard our people’s homes,” Hon. Fahie said.
He noted cautiously, that there would always be a few people who would be delinquent, “that goes without saying,” he said, “but that cannot be used as the basis of the banks' actions.”
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44 Responses to “Hon. Fahie calls for urgent legislation for 'unhelpful banks'”
Lavity was a visionary cr**k but he still do some good.
Fahie I agree with you but only to an extent. There are a lot of genuinely struggling people who live within their means but because of circumstances they fell behind. But there are also those who took out million dollar mortgage and bought fancy cars to show off. That's my problem. You working for a Trust Company and that's your only income then you go to the bank for a $800K mortgage and saying you don't want no tenants in your place, meaning you have to foot mortgage on your own. People in the BVI continue to build these ridiculous structures even with evidence that the economy is still shaky. Now we should feel for them? I feel for the people that live within their pocket but still can't make it. I don't feel for those who took out mansion mortgages and can't repay them. Who send them? The bank was wrong for giving a lot of them all that money for concrete and metal (house and car). We have young people still to this day doing the same $h!t. When will they learn? How can you work for someone, you don't own your company so you can be sent home at any time. But you feel it wise to take a mortgage with a payment of $3k - $4k a month that you have to shoulder on your own. One dose of sickness or emergency and whole thing fall apart. LIVE WITHINT YOUR MEANS. Go down the Caribbean and see the nice but simple structures. Why we need to spend so much on homes here? While Government is working on Legislation they should start working on reaching out to the foolish residents who continue to spend what they don't have. A simple house in BVI shouldn't cost more than $350K. Some can be done for even less if you have people like family willing to help out and defer some costs for labour. I know someone who in the bank for over $700K and the only thing that person isn't selling to make the money is themselves. Hustling day and night to pay for a house that you are hardly in because you're hustling day and night lmao.
Pop B@*k is one of them. Last B@*k is another.
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