Subject to banking regulatory approvals, the planned new Merchant Bank is expected to be launched in late May or early June.
Business professor, accountant and financial analyst, Floyd Haynes, owner of New Haven Inc. which will have control of the proposed Merchant Bank told the Sunday Stabroek when asked for an update, that he is awaiting the necessary regulatory approvals prior to operationalizing the bank. “Now that the building is complete, we are awaiting on a final walk through and inspection from the Bank of Guyana …and if we are given regulatory approval, we are looking to an official launch sometime this month (May) or early June. We are just trying to ensure we have everything in place.”
He added: “We have our team in place; the management team is ready. Everything is set, ready to go. Some of the smaller things had to be done, the, building has been retrofitted for bank purposes, our security systems are installed, then Bank of Guyana will decide…” Bank of Guyana Governor, Gobin Ganga, said that Central Bank will soon be completing the necessary due diligence process.
The Merchant Bank, to be located at 304 Church Street, Georgetown, will initially employ 12 persons and Haynes explained that number will be ramped up if needed. It was Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, during an outreach in Region Two in March, who made the initial announcement of the new financial institution’s formation. Haynes, who is founder and president of Haynes Incorporated, a Washington-based accounting and management consulting firm that provided high-level financial and accounting support to clients such as the United States Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development, told this newspaper that he took the investment decision because he sees great opportunity here.
“I just felt there is an underserved community of business persons with a lot of potential; a lot of opportunity and good business plans and there is no way for them to go get funding because the retail banks don’t cater to that market. So there is this emerging business class in Guyana that has a unique set of needs unlike anything the market caters for. It is expanding and there are new opportunities for both us and them.” He pointed out that local retail banks, where most small businesses go to access financing for their ventures, offer only debt financing.
“They may have good ideas, good project plans, but they can’t walk in and ask for equity financing because retail banks don’t offer equity financing. These businesses may be at a state where they are looking for both debt and equity financing; you know, where they may be giving up some ownership for financing,” he explained.
“Alternative source of capital is where we would step in. For example, you may take an interest ownership in exchange for the capital and be bought out at a later date. Retail banks are not set up for that. I can create a formal institution to provide the services those people need,” he added. Another service Haynes’ merchant bank will offer is management of private pension schemes. “I felt there is an opportunity to provide a different level of management for pension schemes and that type of thing. There are a lot of pension schemes which deserve to have alternative management. At the end of the day they can determine where they get the best deal and we want to be that best deal. It is essentially identifying a gap in the market and satisfying that need,” he added.
Haynes, a certified Public Accountant, holds a MSc. in Financial Economics from the University of Oxford, and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Haynes is also a partner with local Chartered Accountant, Chaitram Ramdihal, in the Ramdihal and Haynes Chartered Accounting and Professional Services Firm. The firm is part of the RHVE consortium of local accounting and auditing firms which recently bid to audit Guyana’s cost oil. The other members of the consortium are Vitality Consulting, and Eclisar Financial & Professional Services (EFP).
