By McPherse Thompson, Assistant News EditorPATRICK HYLTON, who was instrumental in rehabilitating Jamaica's financial sector following the meltdown of the 1990s, appears to be headed for the National Commercial Bank (NCB), one of the institutions the Government placed under his control during that turbulent period.
And Ravi Rambarran, chief financial officer of Life of Jamaica (LoJ), Jamaica's largest insurance company, will be joining NCB sometime in May as managing director of the bank's stockbrokerage and investment arm, Edward Gayle & Company, as well as West Indies Trust Company (WITCo), the bank's pension fund management division.
Mr. Hylton is said to have been holding talks with principals of the Michael Lee-Chin controlled NCB, with a view to taking up a senior
management position at the bank, which he assisted to make the transition from a state-controlled entity to private ownership. In March, last year, Mr. Lee-Chin, chairman of the Canadian-based mutual funds, AIC, acquired the Government's majority stake in NCB and has apparently been on a recruitment drive since then.
Contacted yesterday, Mr. Hylton, who was very guarded in his comments, said only that: "I have had discussions with a number of parties, including NCB. At an appropriate time an announcement will be made."
He was managing director of the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC), the government agency established in the late 1990s to rehabilitate a number of cash-strapped financial institutions until it was wound up last year.
FINSAC, primarily under Mr. Hylton's watch, has been responsible for resolving problems of liquidity and solvency experienced by a number of commercial banks, merchant banks and insurance companies through a process of restructuring, reorganisation, rationalisation and revitalisation of the sector.
Two weeks ago, Finance and Planning Minister Dr. Omar Davies named him as part of a two-man team with a mandate to make recommendations on how best practices employed in the private sector could be utilised to trim expenditure levels in the Government.
The task force, which also includes Chris Bicknell, chief executive officer of Tankweld, has been given a minimum target of a one per cent saving on the Government's $90 billion non-debt expenditure for fiscal year 2003/2004.
MEANINGFUL SUGGESTIONS
Mr. Hylton, who along with Mr. Bicknell will have full information on Government's procurement procedures so they can make meaningful suggestions, said they were already gathering information with a view to making recommendations to the Finance Minister.
A usually reliable source told Wednesday Business that Mr. Rambarran will be joining NCB in early May as managing director of Edward Gayle & Company and WITCo. However, Mr. Rambarran declined comment when he was contacted at his LoJ office in New Kingston yesterday.
Sandra Shirley, senior general manager in charge of the Wealth Management Division of the Bank, is currently the substantive head of Edward Gayle & Company and WITCo. The Wealth Management Division comprises Edward Gayle & Company, WITCo, NCB Cayman, NCB Jamaica Nominees, and Private Banking. Miss Shirley was the senior vice-president for marketing and business development at Manufacturers Sigma Merchant Bank (MSMB) when she resigned in 2001 and took up a position at NCB last year.
