Rating boosts First Citizens

While State-owned First Citizens Bank (FCB) may not enjoy the assets and profit margins of other banks in Trinidad and Tobago, nonetheless, its recent fourth consecutive investment rating upgrade from Standard and Poor’s has been described as an unusual achievement for a financial institution anywhere in the world. In addition, FCB whose Standard and Poor’s rating of its performance moved up this year to BBB/A-2 from BBB/A-3, received a second salute, this time from another world leading financial rating agency — Moody’s Investors Service Incorporated — which has given it an A1 local currency credit rating.  In the process, both have once more rated FCB above all other indigenous banks in the region. Meanwhile, First Citizens (St Lucia) Bonds has received a BAA1 rating from Moody’s Investor Service Inc. 

This adds yet another marketing plus to the Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s Investor Service acclaimed Region’s leading indigenous bank. This is not the first time that the achievements of FCB have received international attention. For example, Euromoney in its June, 2000 issue, in which it published the results of a survey of international banks, had pointed out that FCB was the third largest bank in Trinidad and Tobago. FCB, Euromoney added, had a return on equity of 11.3 percent, which on the basis of the results of the worldwide survey was greater than that of the sixth largest bank in the world, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, with its 3.2 percent “negative return on equity.”

Meanwhile, FCB consolidated its position as a regional indigenous banking major, when its recent US$100 million bond issue, the largest floated by a Trinidad and Tobago bank, was oversubscribed by international investors! The achievements by FCB, itself a merger of three banks — State-owned National Commercial Bank, the Workers’ Bank, a creation of the country’s leading trade unions, and the Trinidad Co-Operative Bank — have resulted from management strategies and those of successive boards. What the achievements add up to is that A1 rated FCB is well positioned to expand its market share, something the bigger banks might just have to work even harder to keep.