Of Foreign Investment and Half-Closed Banks / 14ymedio

The International Finance Bank announces it will close at 1:30 PM because of "air conditioning problems". (14ymedio)
The International Finance Bank announces it will close at 1:30 PM because of “air conditioning problems”. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 5 November 2106 – Cuts in energy consumption are affecting the entire country. In schools, hospitals, industries and ministerial offices the monthly quota of kilowatts has been reduced. To accommodate the narrow plans, many of these entities must reduce electric lighting, turn off air conditioning systems and reduce working hours. Banks do not escape this situation.

In the midst of the International Fair of Havana (FIHAV), and as the authorities are promoting to foreign investors that the banking system is prepared to efficiently manage their funds, not even in the International Financial Bank has been able to avoid the restrictions imposed by the fall in crude oil imports from Venezuela.

Now, along with delays in processing of paperwork and chronic problems with the connections between branches, there is the additional problem of reducing the opening hours of these offices. The situation further complicated any operation that involves changing, saving or withdrawing money from the island’s banks.