Government has expressed to two American banks that it prefers to have a major United States commercial financial operation here, President Irfaan Ali said, even as he expressed that the Bank of America (BoA) representatives seemed upbeat during the meeting he held with them last week.
“They were totally enthusiastic about Guyana and they were ‘gung-ho’ on Guyana. They were telling us about all the prospects they’re seeing and how viable [they were],” Ali told a press conference he hosted on Saturday morning, two days after the meeting with Bank of America representatives.
Government on Thursday met with Bank of America representatives who were here on an exploratory mission. The representatives also met with the private sector.
The visiting delegation included Managing Director, Global Energy Corporate Banking, Donald Ward Rickertsen; Managing Director, Head of Global Export Agency Finance, Patrick William Gang and Director, Regional Corporate Banking, Diego Armando Torres-Luna.
US Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Adrienne Galanek and its Commercial and Economic Officer Thomas Seeger were also part of the visiting delegation.
“Bank of America came and examined opportunities that exist here for them. They had elaborate meetings with the Minister of Finance. We raised with them exactly what is already in the public domain: that we do have an interest in one more commercial bank of international standing, preferably an American bank of international standing,” the President informed.
But the meeting with the BoA representatives is nothing new as Ali said that his government has daily requests from international companies seeking audience on investment in this country.
“… We are having every single major financial institution, every single major multinational business coming to our shores, looking at the opportunities, looking at how they can contribute to the development of our country; looking at a space through which they can operate,” he said.
Ali said that there is a collective effect in developing this country as a friendly financial investment location and this includes upgrading and building systems to meet the needs of the developing world.
“Our market will become more sophisticated in the future, the financial services will be much more robust, and the financial services will be extended. So, these major financial institutions are coming. We had not only meetings with the Bank of America but we had a lot of ongoing meetings with Citibank and other banks across the globe,” he said.
Bank of America was at one time the largest corresponding bank here but pulled their services with local banks in 2016.
Ali was also asked if the bank had raised any questions on the issue of Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism and he said that the issue was not raised.
Prime Minister Mark Phillips had last year told a Caribbean Financial Access round-table in Bridgetown, Barbados, that Guyana was particularly keen on increasing correspondent banking as the oil and gas economy will “propel us towards becoming an international financial centre”.
Correspondent banking facilitates country-to-country services and wire transfers among a range of financial transactions. Over the last decade, Guyana and other parts of the Caribbean have suffered an exodus of US correspondent banks because of the perceived risk of being contaminated by money laundering and related financial crimes in these parts. Domestic US legislation assigns stiff penalties for such occurrences. The loss of correspondent banking has created impediments to businesses and the Caribbean has frequently raised this problem with US governments and legislators.
