US banks show renewed regional interest says PWC

In addition, with new players likely to emerge in the changing face of banking in Barbados, the skills of Barbadians will be greatly enhance.These likely projections for the highly competitive banking industry in Barbados have been outlined by Price-waterhouseCoopers (PWC) in its outlook for the banking sector in Barbados.

This report, which is published annually, highlights the performance of the local banking industry as well as some finance houses. The banks covered are Bank of Nova Scotia, Barbados National Bank, Butterfield Bank, FirstCaribbean International Bank, RBTT Bank and Royal Bank of Canada.

In its 2005 Report on the banking industry here, PWC said that the renewed interest comes about given the economic importance of South and Central America.

“Difficult though it may be to envisage any new entrants in the near future, there is the possibility that the industry could see changes in ownership such as the recent proposed CIBC acquisition of Barclays’ Bank share of FirstCaribbean International Bank, or any other merger of two institutions,” according to the PWC publication.

It noted that the latter does not necessarily has to be banks, since financial institutions are becoming larger and more varied.

“What is clear however, is that the phrase “Barbados banks” is now a misnomer since they are all subsidiaries or branches of larger institutions and run without specific emphasis on any one jurisdiction,” it said.

The banking sector in Barbados has undergone fundamental changes, although a number of American banks which operated here quit the scene back in the 1970s.

Bank of America, Chase Manhattan, First National City Bank and First National Bank of Chicago, were the American banks which previously operated in Barbados.

More, recently Barclays has called it a day, while Butterfield Bank acquired Mutual Bank Incorporated, which itself was established after the problems surrounding the Bank of Commerce and Credit International.

The Barbados National Bank was acquired by Republic Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, and RBTT Bank bought the Caribbean Commercial Bank.

The PWC report said that “Best-in-class” institutions always require “best-in-class” people.

According to the report, “The larger banking groups will have access to a wider pool of resources and transfers of staff will occur throughout a group to deliver expertise where it is required.”

It maintained that “changes in business focus is required in new areas, and where it does not currently exist in a group in the global market.”

Consequently, it went on, “We expect to see skills amongst Barbadian staff as they become exposed to the knowledge transfer and this in turn augurs well for the continued development of our capital markets.”