After months of due diligence, Bank of Guyana has come to the conclusion that permitting Republic Bank’s acquisition of Scotia Bank’s operations would not be in the interest of the country’s financial stability; as such, it has denied approval of same.
Confirming this a few minutes ago with the GuyanaStandard was CentralBank Governor, Dr. Gobind Ganga. The official informed this news agency that the Bank agreed that the sale would have allowed Scotia to have too much control over the financial system. He said, too, that both banks were sent letters outlining Central Bank’s position on the matter. The Central Bank Head noted that other factors were taken into consideration for denying the approval. He declined, however, to list what were the other determinants.
Last year that Scotiabank announced that it was selling its assets in Guyana and eight other Caribbean territories to Republic Bank. The news caught the entire region by surprise. Initially, most were of the opinion that Scotia’s retreat from the region was part of a strategy to improve its earnings.
But that was just a small part of the truth. Research that was conducted by the Guyana Standard revealed that Scotia’s exit from the Caribbean — a region where it operated for 129 years — was in the pipeline for about five years. Its operations in Anguilla, Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines were considered too risky.
This, however, was not expressed by Republic Bank or Scotia when they sent out statements to the media last year on the latter’s exit. (See link for more details: https://www.
