‘Warrens branch doing well’

Republic Bank (Barbados) Limited has been reaping success at its Warrens branch and Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ian De Souza, expects that this will continue well into the future.

 

He made the comments while delivering remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony for One Republic Place, a $30 million office building in which Republic Bank will be the anchor tenant. The two floors to be provided in that six-storey building, being constructed by developer Caribbean Consultants Limited, will be a flagship location for the bank and will also feature a special premium banking service, De Souza stated.

 

He told those gathered that the bank’s presence in Warrens began in 2004 with a sub-branch, but with the number of loans, customers and business in general increasing at the branch, it was graduated to full branch status two years ago. He indicated that since then, the branch has continued to grow in the areas of retail banking, commercial banking and most importantly, he said, premium banking.

 

Speaking to the media after the groundbreaking ceremony, De Souza said that while the new branch is not likely to see an increase in the staff complement when it initially comes on stream in the middle of next year, they are cognisant that their business in Warrens has been growing and if that growth continues, he said, they will have to “scale up on the size of their operations”. Questioned then as to whether the bank intended to increase its footprint on the island, the Managing Director said they have been giving consideration to opening other locations. He said their thoughts are driven by the development taking place on the island, but he was tight-lipped about specific locations.   

 

Meanwhile, he noted that through the construction project at Warrens, the bank will also be making an indirect contribution to the economy. He went on to say that if more projects of this nature can get under way in the country, es-pecially at this time, the more likely Barbados will find a way out of some of the difficulties that it has been experiencing. (JRT)