NCB Financial Group’s recent bid for control of Guardian Holdings Limited and majority acquisition of banking outfit Clarien Group do not represent the end of the financial conglomerate’s ambitions outside Jamaica.
NCB, which made a record net profit of $19 billion last year, is pursuing a strategy to become not just a regional, but a global banking and insurance powerhouse, its top executive has confirmed.
“The focus right now is on creating a huge pan-Caribbean organisation which can be really successful,” said President & CEO of NCB Financial Group, Patrick Hylton in an interview with the Financial Gleaner.
“Once we have properly executed on that, the focus is to go beyond the Caribbean and into other territories. But we want to take it in steps that we are comfortable managing. It could be Central America or wherever the opportunities exist and we feel we have the skills and capabilities to execute,” Hylton said.
Already, the banking group provides merchant banking services in Trinidad & Tobago and wealth management and investment services through NCB Capital Markets Limited in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, The Cayman Islands.
NCB also has a representative office in the United Kingdom that handles remittance of pensions and gives general banking support to NCB customers in the UK.
In its newly-released annual report for 2017, NCB Financial listed “expansion into priority markets” as its number two priority behind developing its digital capabilities.
The major entry into life and health insurance, through the planned takeover of Guardian Holdings in Trinidad and Tobago, of which NCB already owns 29.99 per cent, appears to be the axis on which the intended regional and global expansion will turn.
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