Disappointing Lack of Support from Prestige Banking and Forex Teams

On 28 May 2025, I emailed my Prestige banker, Ms Nokuthula Ngcobo, regarding an international payment I was expecting from an overseas bank. I explained the purpose of the transfer and that I had attempted to use the app, but was confused by the multiple options available, presumably for SARS, for reason for payment. None of the numerical codes seemed to match why mine was being done. I contacted her for guidance before proceeding, as I did not want to make an error. Regrettably, to date, I have still received no acknowledgment or response to that email.

A week later, on 3 June, I escalated the issue to Standard Bank’s Foreign Exchange department. I received an automated response assuring me that my request would receive “urgent attention” and that a consultant, Mathapelo Mfolo, had been assigned to assist. Although this query had already been disregarded by my Prestige banker for a week, there was still no follow-up from anyone.

After waiting another day (and losing interest on the funds until they were transferred) I reluctantly proceeded with the transfer myself, making a best guess at the appropriate payment code.

Seven days after my initial request, I finally received an email Mfolo stating: “Apologies for the delayed response. Please be advised that the payment has been processed and released.” This late response clearly did not even attempt to answer my original question, or provide any guidance for the future. As I had done the transfer myself, it also offered no meaningful information whatsoever.

To add insult to injury, I was asked to rate this service via a survey link—only to be redirected to a message that read: “This response has been deleted by the survey owner.” This gave the impression that the review mechanism may have been pre-emptively disabled by staff to avoid negative feedback.

As a Prestige client, I expected a far higher standard of service. The complete lack of responsiveness and accountability, from both the Prestige Banking and Foreign Exchange teams, is unacceptable.

I hope Standard Bank will take this seriously and make meaningful improvements, and provide clarity on the service failures experienced in this instance.