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Regional News
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FIRSTCARIBBEAN OPENS NEW BRANCH IN JAMAICA Bridgetown, Barbados, February 5, 2007, – Jamaica’s Minister of Finance, the Hon. Dr. Omar Davies, had high praises for FirstCaribbean International Bank, as it officially opened its new Savanna la-mar Branch. Speaking at the recent opening ceremony, the Minister commended the Bank on the aggressive expansion of its loan portfolio and urged other commercial banks to follow FirstCaribbean’s lead. “It is important for banks to realise that they have to go beyond holding government paper and start looking at being real banks. You cannot have such a high percentage of assets simply in government paper. FirstCaribbean must be commended. Today loans on their balance sheet represent approximately 73% of total assets compared to 32% in 2002. The expansion of their loan portfolio over the past two years has been the most aggressive in the Jamaican banking sector. Like FirstCaribbean, other banks will also have to aggressively seek to expand and diversify their respective customer bases and deepen their loan portfolios,” said Dr. Davies “We now need to see the Banks go out there to find clients because the Ministry of Finance is not going to be your number one client in perpetuity. You will have to go out there as FirstCaribbean has done and find real clients with real projects, and that is where your growth is going to come from,” stated Dr. Davies. Minister Davies was one of several dignitaries to attend the historic event, which celebrated the opening of the Bank’s first branch in Savanna-la-mar and the first new branch for FirstCaribbean (formerly CIBC), in over a quarter century. The FirstCaribbean Savanna-la-mar Branch is strategically located within the spanking new Beckford Plaza shopping complex at 33-35 Beckford Street. Explaining the long history and heritage of the Bank in Jamaica, FirstCaribbean Jamaica’s Managing Director, Milton Brady stated in his Opening address; “FirstCaribbean and its predecessor CIBC has been a mainstay in the Jamaica market for over eight decades. The story is that CIBC established itself in Jamaica in 1920 to serve the merchants who were in the salt fish import business. So one can say that we have played an important role in making sure that all Jamaicans can enjoy ackee and salt fish, our national dish!” he joked. He also went on to inform his audience of the significant benefits and impact this heritage now has on FirstCaribbean citing CIBC’s US$1 billion acquisition of the FirstCaribbean shares owned by Barclays as a demonstration of the group’s strong commitment to and confidence in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean region. Brady stated that with total assets of US$12.4 billion, FirstCaribbean was the largest Caribbean based financial institution. He also pointed out that the bank’s Standard and Poors rating of A- stable, made it the highest rated Caribbean based bank. He was however quick to point out that while these were notable accomplishment, they were not what the Page 2 bank aspires to. “FirstCaribbean had a simple vision – to be the #1 bank in the Caribbean. “That means we want to be #1 for our customers, we want to be #1 for our employees, we want to be #1 for our shareholders and we want to be #1 for the communities in which we do business; that is our vision!” he reiterated. Assistant General Manager, Robert Wright who chaired the function introduced the new Savanna-la-mar Branch Manager, David Dennisur -- no stranger to the community as he was described as “a son of Westmoreland”. The Official Opening Ceremony will be followed by a one-day community event named the “Sav-Fun Fest”, to be staged at the Llandilo Cultural Centre, on Saturday February 3. “There will be fun for everyone” stated Managing Director Milton Brady, “as we want it to be a family event as FirstCaribbean seeks to serve every member of the family.” |
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