Clear communication critical

Brown made the comments on Monday while addressing some of the business clients of JMMB Bank Trinidad and Tobago Limited at a panel discussion at the Marriott Courtyard Hotel, Audrey Jeffers Highway, Port of Spain.

The event was organised to discuss ways of fostering positive relationships between the bank and its business clients in the current economic downturn. He said there are challenging times ahead as the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is on the decline and there have been reports of rising unemployment and consumer sensitivity which he said could lead to lower revenues for businesses, and lower profitability and reduced margins. Brown added that businesses go through cycles of upturns and downturns and said that business people should not overact either in good or bad times and firms caught in a downturn should do their best to make it to the next upturn. He said that the impact on the financial sector during this period of downturn should be limited because of the positive balance sheets in the banking sector.

In response to a question, panellist, Devati Mooleedhar, described as a senior banking executive with more than twenty years of financial experience in corporate, investment and commercial banking, said that when the bank meets with a business client it would like to see a proper business plan and some indication that the client has clearly thought out why he/she is in business and in the particular sector.

She said the bank should come away with a clear idea of the business’ strength in the market and what value the company can add to its customers. Responding to a question from one of the bank’s clients, she said that within recent times the cost of getting money for lending had increased but lending rates had not gone up because of the extent of liquidity in the system.

She added that the bank anticipates that rates will increase because of the global financial climate, but while domestic rates were expected to rise it had not happened because of the excess liquidity in the system.

Another of the panellists, Gary Les Kallicharan, Managing Director of K.V. Investments, a property holding company based in San Fernando, as well as Managing Director of Pegasus Services Limited, a security company, said an economic downturn does not mean total doom and gloom. He said his company made its single biggest real estate investment in the eighties during a recession; opened its mall in a recession and the second time it took a major loan was at the beginning of this recession.

“So it’s not a situation where you have to worry about investing. What you have to look at is really and truly the way you manage it. What the business community looks for from the banking sector in the times when you go for a loan, is what they can provide, what you need to give to them and things like that. That is the relationship at that point in time and you are looking for a relationship and be truthful to the bank because they are the ones who have to give you a facility. In this environment what you need to do is to restructure and look to the banking sector to provide a shoulder basically.”