IF you're the richest man in the world, US$30,000 might not seem like a lot of money.

But if you're a lower level hotel worker who has been saving for the past year-and-a-half just so you can afford to buy a house, it might be the world.

Unfortunately for a Jamaican woman working at a hotel on Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands, that world, so pregnant with the hope of a better life, imploded nearly two months ago when the Turks and Caicos Islands Bank folded.

It was particularly painful for the woman, who asked the Sunday Observer not to disclose her name, because the very morning of the day the institution went under, she had deposited close to US$10,000.

"I am upset because why did they take our money if they knew the bank was closing?" she asked. "There was no indication that they were going to close. No notice in the paper, nothing. I went there in the day and they took my money and in the evening I was watching TV and saw it on the news that they closed.

"Why did they take my money?" she asked.

"I had my plan. I had the date when I wanted to leave this country. I wanted to have enough to build a house in Jamaica and just to know that I will be alright when I go back. Now I'm not sure I'm staying because I wouldn't be at peace working on the same island on which we were robbed," said the woman.

"It would have felt better if I had given the money to charity or knowing I had been working to build my country," she said.

She isn't the only one. Several immigrants and islanders alike are reeling from the fallout which took effect on April 9, when the court, based on information brought by the Financial Services Commission, ordered the bank closed.

"It's very tough," said Cielito of his life since hearing the bad news. "It's very, very tough. When I heard about it I thought they were joking but then I confirmed it. I was very shocked."

"For about two weeks I couldn't sleep. I had to keep calm on the outside though. I couldn't let it show on my face because I serve tourists, but deep inside I was dying," said the man whose pleasant demeanour really did seem to contrast his declared mental anguish.

Cielito's loss -- about US$16,000 -- has affected his entire family. His dream was to build a "little house" for his wife and three daughters in their hometown of Cebu City in The Philippines. Now, he said, his wife is disappointed in him and at the whole situation. He had booked his vacation for May 21 and intended to take his savings home with him, but under the circumstances, he has had to postpone his travel.

"Now I can't go because the money isn't there," he said. "I worked very hard for that money. I've done 1,000 overtime [sessions]. I do between 50 and 60 hours in overtime alone every two weeks.

"I didn't mind it because I had a target, it was to build a house for my kids. It's a simple house. I have the lot already," he said.

In spite of the situation, the hotel staffer said he's grateful he still at least has a job.

"I felt like packing up and going home. I felt homesick, but I get relief each day from the support from family and friends. I'm still alive and I still have a job," he said.

A Haitian, who gave his name only as Bernet, didn't lose as much as Cielito or the woman with the US$30,000 but it was no less trying for him.

"I didn't even touch anything from the last payroll," he said, sounding irritated.

He was standing in line in front of the TCIB two weeks ago. Dozens of depositors were in line too. They had gone at the urging of a committee of creditors led by attorney William McCollum. The committee is making plans to sue the bank in an attempt to recover the monies.

Bernet, who has two young children, said he had to borrow from friends until he got paid the following fortnight.

"It was very, very hard," he told the Sunday Observer. "And in the same week I got a speeding ticket for US$150. I didn't have the money to pay so I had to go to court."

Another Jamaican, who also asked that the newspaper not reveal his name, said he has potentially lost US$7,000.

The young man said he had been saving for almost two years and talked of months of not going out and of shopping only for the necessities.

"Them spoil mi dream," he muttered, shaking his head and burying his hands deeper into his pockets. "My goal was to set myself up in Jamaica, to build a house and buy a SUV. Everything I had planned to do has been set back.

"They set me back because there is no lifetime now that I'm going to work that money back because the economy is getting tougher and tougher," he said.

Like several others who have been affected, the young man said he has had to postpone plans he had to vacation in Jamaica this summer. His biggest fear, he said, is having to come home with no money in his pockets.

"Suppose we have to go home (to Jamaica) now? We won't have any money and people will think we squandered our money, or worse, that we were in prison," he said.

Two other Jamaicans to whom the Sunday Observer spoke said they only lost small amounts (US$300 and US$170 each). They said they withdrew most of their wages from the bank every fortnight and kept it at home until it accumulated and they had enough to send to their families and to save.

"I already have a house in Jamaica," one of them said. "I only want to do some home improvement, to get a nice SUV and a taxi to put on the road."

Managing director of the FSC, Kevin Higgins, told the Sunday Observer that there was a run on the bank in the week before it collapsed. But, he said, the institution had a poor loans portfolio prior to that. They both contributed to its demise, he said.

"There was a run on the bank in which three or four large depositors took out their monies. They took out over a million each the week before the crash but the bank was having problems long before that," said Higgins.

"The Commission has been involved with the bank, certainly for at least as long as I've been here and I've been here three years," he said.

Higgins said he was confident depositors, especially the small ones, would get at least part of their savings back. He said discussions were ongoing as to whether to sell the bank or put it into official liquidation.

"They won't get the full amount but they will get something back. The governor has said he will be issuing a retroactive depositor's insurance bill so they will get something back," he said.

There has been strong opposition by the Turks and Caicos Bankers Association to the governor's stated intention to have a retroactive deposit insurance bill passed. Their main arguments are that the TCI doesn't have a central bank, so regulation of the insurance scheme would be flawed, and that other banks shouldn't be made to pay for the faults of one bank, especially when they didn't know what caused it to fail.

But Higgins said they were using those arguments as excuses.

"Someone else always has to pay. The community has to support the weaker ones. In the TCI, banks don't even pay income tax and one in particular made US$10 million profit last year alone, so why don't they want to pay back anything to the society from which they have made so much?" he reasoned.

Depositors and shareholders should have met with court-appointed liquidators Anthony Kikivarikii and Mark Munings this past Wednesday to get answers regarding their monies and the state of the bank.