Giving no firm indication as to whether it will remain in Guyana for the long-term following an unsuccessful takeover bid by Republic Bank, Scotiabank yesterday announced that it will continue its business as normal while focusing on a long-term solution for its employees and customers.
“As a result of the decision communicated by the Bank of Guyana, the sale of Scotiabank’s operations in Guyana to Republic Bank will not move forward at this time. We will continue to deliver business as usual and focus on the best long-term solution for our employees and customers,” a terse statement from the bank said.
On Wednesday, Stabroek News reported that the Bank of Guyana (BoG) had rejected Republic Bank’s application for the acquisition of Scotiabank while citing a number of concerns.
Minister of Finance Winston Jordan told Stabroek News on Tuesday evening that Cabinet was alerted to letters that BoG Governor Dr Gobind Ganga would have dispatched to the Trinidad-headquartered Republic Bank and Scotiabank “and also the letter that was written to me, indicating that having done their examination and taking all the circumstances into consideration that they [BoG] could not approve the application.”
“This was discussed at Cabinet…and Cabinet concurred with the governor’s pronouncement and they agreed that the reasons given were important reasons and the critical one being concentration, the risks involved and so on, AML/CFT [Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism] considerations, the lack of supervisory capacity by the bank itself; they are now building that capacity and so on. So when you take all of that into consideration, we did not feel that this application would be in Guyana’s best interest,” he added.
Republic Bank has expressed disappointment at the decision. On Thurs-day, in a statement, President and CEO of Republic Financial Holdings Limited (RFHL), Nigel Baptiste, said, “While this development is disappointing, we do not dwell on disappointment. As a group, we remain fully engaged and committed to supporting the nation of Guyana through our operations there, as well as toward ensuring the success of all activities for which we have received the requisite regulatory approvals, under the proposed BNS acquisition. We appreciate the Bank of Guyana’s acknowledgement of the value of our longstanding role in the development of Guyana’s financial landscape and our continued contribution to the financial sector.”
The Minister of Finance has said that while the decision to sell is up to Scotia, government hopes that it might rethink its position as the Bank of Baroda has done. “We hope that Scotia can use this opportunity to… because you know Baroda has cancelled their exit, so to speak, so maybe Scotia, in the context of oil and gas and the speed at which that is being ramped up, maybe they will see the light perhaps and decide to stay. But in the event they don’t, I hope they take due consideration that Guyana is a sovereign country and we ought to be treated in that manner,” Jordan said.
This was echoed by Ganga who commended the bank for the excellent service they provide. “Of course I would want them to stay. They have delivering excellent service and they have been making profits. It is not that they are not doing well here that caused them to want to sell, it was just their focus. I hope they would change their mind and stay,” he told this newspaper.
