POINTING TO THE increasing signs that the Barbados economy and business climate were improving, First Citizens chief executive officer (CEO) Karen Darbasie says the regional financial group has big plans for the Barbados market.
Speaking last week during a brief visit to the island, the head of the Trinidad and Tobago-based entity, which operates commercial bank and investment services here, said there were opportunities in this market which her company intended to pursue this year.
First Citizens Bank opened its newest branch at Welches, St Thomas, last year and now the organisation is “working towards a full integration of the Barbados technology platform into the group’s technology platform” by June.
“This allows us to have the access to the full slew of products that we have on the banking platform available to our Barbados customers as we need to deploy them in Barbados,” she explained.
“I am actually seeing quite a bit of opportunity in Barbados in the commercial and corporate space. I think there is a sense in Barbados that the corner is being turned and people are starting to look at making productive investments again,” she said.
“And I think that’s an opportunity for us to expand our footprint in that space where we have traditionally been very good in the retail and in the mortgage space and we have done some work with the state. I think I am seeing opportunities in the corporate space for us to expand.”
In addition to the commercial banking aspect, Darbasie said the investment services arm would be launching “some new things . . . within the next couple of weeks”.
Aluding to the competitive nature of financial services in Barbados, she added: “I am here to stay, I am willing to compete, and ready to compete, once it meets my parametres.”
She was happy the company’s expansion plans were being done at a time economic and fiscal matters were starting to improve in Barbados.
“In the overall scheme of things, when we look at the group, Trinidad and Tobago, because of the decline in energy prices, is not doing so well from an economic standpoint.
“Barbados, because of the measures that have been taken over the last couple of years, I am seeing the fiscal deficit starting to narrow. Numbers were above ten per cent, I am seeing the numbers now below ten per cent,” she said.
“So the fiscal deficit is coming down, the reserves of the country seem to be stabilising at around 14 weeks of import cover and to be quite frank I had extreme difficulty trying to get a hotel room in Barbados this week.
“So second year in a row, I understand, that the hotel stock is completely booked up. So I think Barbados has many positive things going for it as a country at this point in time which bodes well for First Citizens operations in Barbados and why the investment we are making in our technology platform is important for us at this point in time,” she added.
In terms of the group’s performance last year, Darbadise said: “We are showing a profit before tax from a group perspective of . . . just a little over US$120 million and that is a 2.47 per cent growth over the previous year.”
Noting that the company operates in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent, and Costa Rica, she noted “when you consider the macro-economic environment of the countries in which we are operating, where GDP growth is subdued or GDP is actually declining in several of those countreis, a growth of almost 2.5 per cent is a very good growth within that consideration”. (SC)
