UOB Citibank Buyout and Poor Customer Service and How Consumers are Affected.
UOB Malaysia and Citibank Malaysia had in its press release on 4 September 2022 – that they have received regulatory approval from Bank Negara Malaysia for UOB’s acquisition of Citi’s consumer banking business in Malaysia. The announcement said it is expected to also scale up our retail business with an expanded portfolio and partner ecosystem.
It also stated that the acquisition is to further strengthen UOB Malaysia’s outreach to customers through a wider network of branches and digital touch-points. "We look forward to welcoming Citi colleagues to the UOB family. Together, we will create long-term value for our enlarged customer base in Malaysia.” My experience was far from that and was unpleasant dealing with the changes.
I am one of Citibank’s customers with a Gold Master Card. I have had this card for more than 20 years. I retained the card mainly due to the better service standards of Citibank and its reputation for timely assistance to customers who need it. For example, a lost card can be replaced within 24 hours even when you are in a foreign country. They had an efficient phone banking service with adequate staff to assist you on various issues related to the credit card. Telephone calls to their call centre were attended to promptly.
As customers of Citibank had no choice but to be subjected to the take-over of business notice we had all of a sudden become the customers of UOB Malaysia by default. I would say the transition was not a pleasant one. Firstly, I had made a payment via a bank and UOB staff called me to inform me that my payment was outstanding and asked me to check with the bank I used to transfer the payment. When I called the bank I used to transfer the funds I was informed that the transfer went through. After five days I received confirmation that the transfer was received by UOB Malaysia.
UOB Malaysia did not acknowledge that the payment was received until I called to check again and they confirmed it. In this case, it was not the fault of mine. The calls with their collection department were answered promptly. How can this happen? Is the integration not tested and poorly executed? Or it is inadequate staffing post-merger or “tidak apa” attitude?
Fast forward a few months, I downloaded UOB’s app on Google Playstore to check my balances and redeem outstanding credit card points. They had instructions on username and password creation. It was stated that the username and password characters cannot be identical and must be alpha-numeric. There were no examples. I created a user word ending with some numbers. Then I proceeded to create a different password ending with the same numbers, to my understanding as a layman, the two were different. However, the system rejected to accept the user name and password many times. Later after a few stressful attempts, I figured out it may have to do with the numerals and changed them and it worked. The correct instruction should be: "Do not use the characters in your username and passwords for numerals" with examples i.e, if you had used 456 in your user name do not use 456 in your passwords even when the alphabets are different. This would make the customer journey much more pleasant and stressful.
Having downloaded the app, I tried logging in and was unable to do so. I immediately called the phone numbers provided on the website for inquiries. I called twice, the first call was not answered even after 30 minutes, I hung up. I called again, this time I waited for 15 minutes and again no answer. I felt this is not only poor service standards but unacceptable too. This was never the case with Citibank. Both with chargeable calls as no toll-free line numbers were provided. So the call charges were to my account. Will the bank's senior management endure this type of waiting?
I called again during the day and there were no answers. I followed the prompt to leave a message and I did what was instructed. After selecting the option and before ending the call, a recorded voice informed us that they would revert back in two working days! Imagine the horror one would have to go through if the card is lost, stolen or there is an unauthorised transaction. The worst thing under such circumstances will be the inability to reach the bank and your card being used by a third party. Who will the liability land on?
The apathy and take-or-leave-it attitude is a serious issue and can be resolved by BNM as the supervisor of banks. There is a need to establish minimum service standards for Telephone Banking Services provided by Financial Institutions. I am not sure if there is one at present, if there is one then consumers must be informed of such standards. As it appears it is unlikely that the industry can self-regulate on this. Financial Institutions must report the average call waiting time for the various categories of services rendered via phone banking with the longest time taken. This will give customers the choice of choosing a bank that is there to provide good service. With internet banking growing fast and the increase in transactions that are high, such a move will be timely.
It is time for banks to pay attention to the customer journey and experience. Consumers are increasingly better informed and are asking for better service. Better service here is the minimum decent delivery time to attend to customer queries. The regulators are doing a great job already but addressing the above issues relating to service delivery is paramount. Publish statistics on how banks are equipped to handle an increasing number of customers and business volumes.
Sivanesan Mutusamy is a Financial Markets Professional, Fintech, and Startup Roll Out Specialist. He holds a Masters's in Economics (Monetary Policy - Term Structure Analytics) and a degree in Economics (Hons. Analytical Economics from the University of Malaya. His interests are in various fields and current issues. He is a strong believer in Malaysia and it's potential.
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