The form is now available on the website and additional staff have been taken on to deal with the multiple inquiries, Hill said, as he urged members to ensure their application forms were properly completed.

“The pension fund is fine,” Hill said, adding that allegations on social media about problems with the fund were completely unfounded. He noted that the pension has always been a separate segregated fund owned by the memebrs.

Hill confirmed that the administrating company Fidelity Pension Services was sold by Fidelity bank to RF holdings last year (see release below) and the approval of that sale had been given by CIMA at the end of 2019. But approval for RF Holdings to manage the separate financial entity had not been given until the beginning of this month, “which had proved to be a difficult time”, told Hill.

The bank president asked people to be patient and explained that there was a process to this emergency access to pension funds. He said the money was there and there was no need for members to be concerned. He further noted that the audited accounts for the funds were available to all members.

Hill said that, given the layout of the Fidelity offices, they are not able to open yet because of social distancing protocols under the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders. But he urged people to visit the website, where the forms are now available as well as information about the withdrawals and answers to frequently asked questions.

His main concern was the ability of people to access notaries to ensure that members’ identities were properly confirmed for security reasons, as he urged government to help with access to notaries. Hill added that people must ensure that all of the information required for the applications was complete and accurate, explained that this would be the issue, if any, that could delay a member’s access to their money.