Davies THE ESTABLISHMENT of ITMB Finance & Investments, a subsidiary of the United General Insurance (UGI) Group of Companies, was a clear recognition that the ingredients which guaranteed success and prosperity in the financial sector in the past, may not be adequate to bring about similar results in future.
Finance and Planning Minister Dr. Omar Davies, who made the observation, said it was also a recognition of the need to separate deposit-taking institutions from investment advisors and money managers that gave rise to ITMB's new operation.
Speaking at the launch of the financial institution at the Hilton Hotel, New Kingston last Thursday, Dr. Davies noted that "we in Jamaica have seen and experienced the most negative possible results of irresponsible corporate behaviour, aided and abetted by an inadequate regulatory system, and that combination provided the recipe for the crisis from which we are just now emerging."
Again defending the Government's intervention in the financial sector during the meltdown in the 1990s, the Minister said that despite the cost the recovery has come about much faster than anyone would have anticipated. Furthermore, we now have a better regulated sector with each institution better capitalised and better managed" and ITMB's launch was one indication of such action.
Dr. Davies said that under the new regulations, the fit and proper criteria as applied to senior managers and board members would be rigorously instituted, without exception. The Minister reiterated that the sector would also be rigorously regulated to ensure that money market managers and advisors "do not seek to portray themselves as deposit-taking institutions and even the slightest hint of any such activity by a licensed institution will be addressed with the full force of the law."
General manager of ITMB Finance & Investments, Joan Ranglin-Hinds, said that although they only launched as a new entity last week, over the past eight months the company's funds under management portfolio had already grown by more than 200 per cent.
Mrs. Ranglin-Hinds said that by any standard that was an achievement of note and one that encouraged them to pursue the path they were convinced would lead to even greater achievement.
Noting their twin objectives "to get our fair share of the investor pie", and "to do so by building investor confidence in our company", the general manager said they felt confident those aims could be realised.
She said the 15-member ITMB team, including the management team of highly-trained specialists, would be offering services in insurance premium finance, asset management and foreign exchange trading.
Formerly First Caribbean Investment and Finance, ITMB was acquired by the UGI Group last year. However, negotiations between UGI's chairman Neville Blythe and CIBC resulted in a name change. The move arose because of a conflict with FirstCaribbean International Bank, the name proposed to be used for the merged Caribbean banking entity of Barclays and CIBC.
During last Thursday's function, Mr. Blythe said that with the acquisition of controlling interest in ITMB Finance & Investments, "we intend to expand our financial services by becoming more active in all areas of investment banking."
