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Managing Director and CEO of Barbados National Bank (BNB) Inc, Robert Le Hunte.

Le Hunte looks to take indigenous banks forward

11/18/2009

MANAGING Director and CEO of Barbados National Bank (BNB) Inc, Robert Le Hunte, is the new Chairman of the Caribbean Association of Indigenous Banks (CAIB), and is looking to enhance the effectiveness of the operations of these institutions in the region.

Speaking to the media on Monday, Le Hunte stated that one of the ways in which this can be achieved is through institutional strengthening, and this requires, in his mind, the implementation of a number of initiatives.

These include the introduction of a credit bureau, and an Automated Clearing House (ACH) for the Eastern Caribbean.

“I think that these two projects will go a long way towards improving the effectiveness of the financial services sector in the OECS”, he said. “I hope to put the resources of the CAIB behind these initiatives especially that of the credit bureau.”

According to him, the absence of a credit bureau impacts the ability to lend to the small business market effectively.

He made the point on Monday, that the existence of a credit bureau allows financial institutions to perform background credit checks on potential borrowers, thereby giving them an indication as to which persons appear to be disciplined and trustworthy creditors, and which ones are not.

He acknowledged that such an institution currently exists in Barbados, but argued that its acceptance is not as wide as its needs to be in order for it to be truly effective.

Le Hunte also argued that there is a need for CAIB to do more training within small institutions to assist them in the development of the best practices seen among larger institutions, along with expressing the view that there is going to be the need for some consolidation.

“Some of these institutions are small and as such because of the increased vigilance and increased cost of running a financial institution, it is difficult sometimes to spread this cost over the consumer base.”

According to the new Chairman, CAIB’s role was to help in the co-ordination of information sharing and building collaborative aspects of indigenous banks, but stated that over the years CAIB has moved away from this original mandate.

“My objective this year is to move back to meeting all the original objectives and lend full support of CAIB behind some industry strengthening mechanisms that are required”, he said. (RH)

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as of close 9/15/2009


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