Banks in Dominica

The official currency is the Eastern Caribbean dollar, written as EC dollar or XCD. It is pegged to the United States dollar at US$1 = EC$2.70. NBD is a locally licensed bank, while Republic Bank (EC) Limited is a foreign-owned local bank. The ECCB supervises licensed commercial banks and operates the Eastern Caribbean banking and payment infrastructure. AID Bank serves a development-bank function, particularly for productive and social-sector lending. Credit unions are separate member institutions supervised by the Financial Services Unit (FSU), which operates within the Ministry of Finance. They can provide useful financial services but are not a full commercial-bank replacement. The FSU also has responsibilities involving non-commercial financial institutions and anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing controls. Common bank products include savings accounts, chequing accounts, time or fixed deposits, Certificates of Deposit and foreign-currency accounts, including United States dollar accounts. Interest rates, transaction limits, account charges, card fees and wire-transfer costs follow each bank's published schedule and account terms; Dominica does not have one uniform national condition for all accounts. Banks normally verify the customer's identity, residential address, income or source of funds and tax-residency information. NBD may request photo identification, proof of address issued within the previous six months, proof of income and a minimum opening deposit of EC$100. RepublicOnboard generally requires the applicant to be at least 18 years old, have a valid email address and phone number, a camera-enabled device, identification or a passport, and a utility bill issued within the previous three months. Employees may also provide a recent job letter or payslip, while self-employed applicants may need financial documents. Non-nationals may qualify, but the bank can require additional checks. Joint accounts and politically exposed person cases may require branch handling. Republic's digital onboarding review takes approximately one business day when the submitted information is complete. A Visa Debit card may still need to be collected at a branch. Branch and automated banking machine access is evidenced in Roseau, Canefield and Portsmouth for NBD, with Republic Bank also maintaining branches and automated banking machines. An automated banking machine is commonly called an ABM or ATM. Domestic payments can use EC-dollar transfers, cheques, bill payment, card payments and electronic retail clearing through ECACH, the Eastern Caribbean Automated Clearing House. RTGS, or real-time gross settlement, is used for large-value settlement. Cross-border payments use wire transfers and correspondent banks, so charges, cut-off times and delivery times can differ from a domestic payment. NBD Internet Banking and MoBanking can show balances and transaction history, pay bills, make transfers, send payments to other people, issue alerts and report card loss. Transfers between a customer's own accounts have no stated limit in the NBD MoBanking FAQ, while transfers to other parties are limited to EC$5,000 per transfer. RepublicOnline, RepublicMobile and RepublicOnboard provide comparable online or mobile services, subject to the bank's eligibility, security and transaction rules. Use only official bank websites and applications. Never disclose passwords, one-time passcodes or card security details. Transaction alerts help identify unauthorized activity, and a lost or stolen card should be reported to the bank immediately. Visa and Mastercard debit or credit products are subject to the issuing bank's eligibility rules, and online card payments may use 3-D Secure where the bank enables it. The bank is normally the first contact for account, payment and card complaints through a branch, telephone, email or online support channel. Keep customer records current and provide accurate information for customer identification, tax reporting under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). A bank may decline an incomplete or non-compliant application and may apply rules for inactive or abandoned accounts. The latest located official material did not confirm operational deposit-insurance cover across the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union; ask the bank or ECCB directly about the protection status applying to a particular deposit.