Dear editor, I am writing this letter with a lot of anguish about what is happening in our banking sector. I will give an example, which is not an isolated case as these institutions always love putting it. I issued a cheque of USD 150, and in the wisdom of my bankers, my account was debited with clearing charges of USD 64 (Frw 35,200). Simply and clearly put, the charge for conducting this transaction cost half as much as the amount involved! I find this highly irregular and an abuse of banking practices. A 50 percent charge is unjustifiable if a banking institution was really in it for the business. Can the bank manager justify these charges in terms of any value added to clearing a local dollar cheque service to me as a customer? This does not happen anywhere else. When I queried one of the staffers of BCR why this kind of charges exists, all he told me was that those are the bank charges. This is pure day light robbery without violence. I have not made this up, and to show my goodwill I am putting down all my contacts so that we clear this. But because it is a general problem, I will be happy if I got a reply through this paper, so that whoever has a problem clearing their cheques will have also been answered. I am an experienced banker but this beats any logic. The bank should get more innovative ways of making money rather than invading customer accounts in terrorist-like styles like this one. Contact: bnganga2003@gmail.com Tél: 0808886039