Evolution of banking services in Dominican Republic

While in the DR (Caberete), I have used the site Remitly to send myself (or others) money in the DR, and it has worked quite well for me. Remitly will send your money amount to a local bank of your choice for you to either pick up OR the bank will deliver the money directly to you at your home (which I like a lot because sometimes those bank lines can be long.)

Banking and online services have changed significantly. Fr expats this is fairly easy to use.

For locals, lack of education leaves them standing in long lines and many are distrustful of banks.

I pay almost every bill online and use my bank card almost exclusively.  The ease of this depends where you live.  In Santo Domingo it's easy. In smaller towns it can be harder.  The underground and under the table economy requires cash

We are still behind in many aspects!

Banco de Reservas has open a branch in NYC and plans to open one in Miami. Their intent is probably to get money transferred to family members more quickly. Others could also benefit by opening an account in NYC and using its debit card while in the DR.

Banco de Reservas office in New York City

https://dr1.com/forums/threads/.407997/#post-5710095

When in New York City for the 78th UN General Assembly, President Luis Abinader inaugurated the Banco de Reservas representation branch to offer financial services to Dominicans residing abroad. Banco de Reservas is a commercial bank owned by the Dominican government.

The office is at 181 Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights, where a large community of Dominicans resides. Another will open soon in Miami, Florida.

The Banco de Reservas had already opened a similar office in Madrid, Spain.

It has very limited services in these offices apparently!

@Cheryl

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NYC branch is just a 'representative'........not a true branch..... not a bank proper

If you're referring to fintech adoption and utilization of technology I can tell you what I use and observe.

Technological adoption is very low, the banks know this but don't really invest to scale for it - what do I mean by that? long wait lines clearly understaffed and undermotivated employees. When I go to the bank to get X or do Y it normally takes me 1.2 hours. In Canada, the same thing would take me about 10 minutes.

most people don't even access their account online, which adds to the lines of doing something simple like paying for X service in person which really clogs everything up, even for young people.

Online bank portals have been invested in scotia bank Banco Popular have a good UI/UX but their fees are still a bit high I find for their transfers, they count simplify transfers here and let the outside world in a bit more - the thing is the technology is there but if it's not adopted by the population it slows down technological growth and most of the population here has a deep mistrust in products and services and carry that bias with them everywhere they go which further dampens new ways of doing things even outside of banking. I dont even think Dominicans can access the North American stock market? maybe i'm wrong but also other crypto services or investing and quite honestly i'd be weary of trusting any organization with my money here that I personally didnt have someone close to me ( inside ) vouching for the service because there are little to no regulations here and your money can be gone. Public trust needs to be fixed and that will take a generation.

things like contactless payments are an invitation to have your bank drained here, DR is the scam capital for credit cards.

(contactless payments, phone-based payment systems, QR codes, etc.)

C.P = very little, I see foreigners use them quite a bit or Dom yorks in the supermarkets.

QR never

Crypto I have and have seen others but they were foreigners, can a local even have a crypto wallet ?

What can be done? investigate and make friends and see if there is an opp here to start a fintech company

Any bank in the US will be a separate entity from the DR counterpart.  Transferring money between the US version and DR version will still be a wire transfer with all the regulations that existing for any other US and DR banks.  Money laundering rules still apply.

As far as I know , Banco Popular is the only DR bank that uses PayPal.  So there is one E-transfer option if you have a Banco Popular account.

I have not used any other transfers besides wire transfers and PayPal.

After getting ripped off by BanRervas when someone used my wife's BR credit card in Santiago when we were in the US, and they never refunded that money and she had to pay for that, we stopped using credit cards in the DR.   I had my credit card cloned twice here and that was enough for me to stop using mine here.

Once in a while I use my Charles Schwab card at an ATM to get pesos. 

Special features of the banks here?  Yes!  They suck!!

I often use both Banco Populars App and  website both in the DR and at home.  While basic functions work well, advanced features like recurring payments, do not.  It is common for future payments to fail.

Fortunately, the system always seems to track the failed transactions, but BP seems unable or unwilling to correct the programming.

That's because the "program" is a big mess of multiple pieces and patches on patches!!!  It's a normal practice to roll out changes without proper testing!

@planner

yes to open a branch in nyc you would have to jump through a set of organizational and capability hoops 

I would be shocked if any banks here would pass those with any muster 

but a start