With the goal of “meeting the banking needs of a new breed of clientele”, Republic Bank (Guyana) has established an internal Oil and Gas Steering Committee that is geared towards strong research and anticipating the needs of clients in the new sector.
This was recently revealed by Richard Sammy, the Bank’s Managing Director.
Sammy said that the Committee comprises of corporate and commercial managers, branch heads, and market specialists.
The Managing Director said, “This Committee is going to be extremely useful in meeting the banking needs of a new breed of clientele. Through our sister subsidiaries, particularly Republic Bank Trinidad, we are able to extend the type of financial instruments to meet the sector’s needs and, in this regard, have booked the largest single credit facility in the energy sector.”
Sammy said that Republic Bank also maintains strong relations with all energy and oil and gas players, including energy chambers, publications, seminar organisers and industry experts.
He noted that the members of the committee as well as the general staff were provided with sector-related training by ExxonMobil’s Centre for Local Business Development. Sammy added too that Republic Bank officials benefitted from presentations facilitated by external energy parties such as ExxonMobil’s Country Manager, Rod Henson.
Further to this, Sammy said that since the announcement in 2015 that Guyana had struck oil, the Bank has been readying itself to play a lead role in the banking sector.
He recalled that Republic Bank was the first to host a trade mission to Guyana in November 2016, to sensitise regional businesses to the prospects here, introduce delegates to local businesses, and provide insight on how to go about doing business. The two-day event saw participation from more than 200 businesses from Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Barbados, and Suriname.
Speakers included ministers of government, foreign local investment agencies, Caricom representatives, legal and accounting experts, energy experts, local and regional business representatives, and Republic Bank.
