Focus
There are six commercial banks in Guyana competing for the business of banking consumers. The banks vary in size and performance. They also use differing strategies to conduct business and grow their income. The article this week provides a comparison of four of the six banks and their performance over the past year. The four banks that will 
be discussed herein also have their shares sold on the Guyana Stock Exchange. In an effort to avoid overcrowding the discussion, two areas of interest will be considered. These are the comparative size of the various banks as measured by market valuation, deposit, loan and asset size. The other comparative metric is the growth performance of the companies, especially the profitability growth measures. Most of the data is taken from the online report on prudential ratios of the Bank of Guyana (BOG).
Market valuation
The first measure of interest is that of the market value of the companies. Only four of the six commercial banks are identified on the Guyana Stock Exchange. The entities whose stocks are traded on the secondary market in Guyana are Citizens Bank Inc., Demerara Bank Limited (DBL), Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (BTI) and Republic Bank Limited (RBL). The banks whose shares are not traded in Guyana are