FCB/Unit Trust merger ‘dead in the water’ —— Howai

FIRST Citizens Bank’s Larry Howai said that as far as he was aware the proposed merger between FCB and the Unit Trust Corporation was “dead in the water.” Howai also said FCB was about to embark on regional expansion but would not say where. He was speaking in an interview with reporters yesterday at the Hilton Trinidad after delivering the feature address at a leadership seminar  hosted by the Leadership Consult-ing Group.  When asked if FCB was going into the regional market as other banks in Trinidad and Tobago, including RBTT and Republic,  have done, Howai said FCB was exploring its options. The bank, he said, was now being advised on how to proceed in its regional expansion thrust. Howai declined to say what Caribbean country FCB had earmarked, noting that the banking environment was fiercely competitive and he did not want to give them any leads. On the proposed FCB/ UTC merger, Howai said he still has not been told officially about it.

“It seems to be dead in the water,” he said, noting that he was basing his comment on the dearth of newspaper reports on it over the past few weeks. On his presentation to CEOs and managers from a diverse range of corporations throughout TT, Howai said he never dreamed that FCB would scale the heights it did. “We did not want to be the biggest, we wanted to be the most competitive,” he told business people who had forked out money for live satellite transmission on motivational speakers, including Dr Gary Bradt, author of “Who Moved My Cheese?” Howai said FCB, a product of three failed institutions, started off with a loss of $2 million and has since recorded a profit of $200m. There is no leadership without integrity, he said, noting that without this ingredient, one will get nowhere. Howai offered his own take on management techniques, saying that bosses must give employees tools to solve problems on their own and must challenge the status quo and processes fearlessly. Bosses, he said, must show that they are human too.