Bank junks deposit boxes in renovation blunder

DBS faces million-dollar payout after customers' valuables are thrown away and crushed

A Hong Kong bank has blamed human error for an embarrassing blunder - expected to cost millions - in which 83 safe deposit boxes and their contents were discarded as scrap metal.

DBS Bank (Hong Kong) officials yesterday admitted the boxes had been mistakenly scrapped during renovations to a branch in Mei Foo on Saturday. By the time the error was discovered on Sunday the boxes had been crushed by industrial compressors.

DBS managing director and head of consumer banking, Sunny Cheung, yesterday described the incident as a tragic and upsetting accident.

He said teams of workers were attempting to salvage valuables from the crushed metal wreckage.

Police said they had received five complaints about the incident since DBS made an official report at 1.40pm on Monday.

The boxes - which probably held cash, bonds, certificates, jewellery and items of sentimental value - were mistakenly included among 837 empty safe deposit boxes destined for the scrap heap, Mr Cheung said.

'DBS (HK) will honour its ultimate responsibilities to affected customers. It is committed to taking appropriate remedial action to ensure that such an unfortunate incident does not happen again.'

It was an isolated incident caused purely by human error, he said.

Bank officials privately admitted they were facing a nightmare in attempting to determine the true value of most boxes because the details of the contents were confidential and known only to the owners.

'We certainly do not want to invite fraudulent claims,' one DBS spokesman said, admitting compensation costs could run into the millions.

One angry victim said she had lost cash, jewellery and family heirlooms in the mishap.

'All these things are not something you can buy with money. We have kept gold and jewels from our marriage for over 20 years. But now they are all gone,' she said.

'You place your most precious valuables in the safe deposit box but you never imagine they will dispose of your valuables like trash.'

Another victim said: 'This is absurd. I put my stuff there because I trust the bank. How could something like this have happened?'

Efforts by the South China Morning Post to contact the contractor company, Kumihara, responsible for stripping the boxes during the renovation process, ended with an office staff member refusing to accept calls and hanging up the phone.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), Hong Kong Association of Banks and the Consumer Council yesterday vowed to monitor the internal investigation under way by DBS.

The HKMA was 'taking a very serious view' of the matter, a spokesman said. 'The HKMA expects the bank to take prompt and appropriate remedial actions and to compensate customers who may have suffered losses as a result of this incident in accordance with the code of banking practice.'

Hong Kong Association of Banks chairman Peter Wong Tung-shun said the association would discuss the case at its next meeting.

A Consumer Council spokesman said: 'We have had a few complaints in relation to safe deposit boxes but they are usually about menial matters such as disputes or rental increases.'

He said some customers had expressed concern they had signed a contract that might contain exemption clauses limiting the liability of the bank. 'But under these circumstances such terms and clauses may not be applicable.'

Securicor managing director Glenn Tracey said: 'The bank is going to have an extremely challenging problem determining the declared value of the goods in each box.'