By Dennise Williams, Staff Reporter 
FirstCaribbean's Country Manager Raymond Campbell (left) with Christopher Berry at Mayberry's Investor's Seminar, held at the Knutsford Court Hotel on Wednesday. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
FIRSTCARIBBEAN INTERNATIONAL Bank was the featured company at the Mayberry Monthly Investor's Forum held at the Knutsford Court Hotel on Wednesday.
Raymond Campbell, country manager and executive director of capital markets, was the guest speaker.
Mr. Campbell spoke about the strides the bank has made during the two and half years it has been in existence. "We were born from the merger of Barclay's Bank and CIBC," he said. FirstCaribbean is now in 15 Caribbean countries. In two short years, we have grown from strength to strength by putting our customers first and our employees first."
Besides Jamaica, FirstCaribbean is in Anguilla, Antigua, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, The British Virgin Islands, The Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Vincent, The Turks and Caicos Islands.
Not satisfied to be in just 15 territories, FirstCaribbean is spreading its reach to the twin island republic with the planned purchase of Mercantile Bank (Trinidad & Tobago), which is subject to regulatory approval. However, as with any entity that is growing, it must make changes in its structure and FirstCaribbean did so advantageously. FirstCaribbean has recently sold its stake in Republic Bank to CLICO Investment for US$117 million.
And the funds generated from this sale will help the bank finance its future expansion. Looking ahead, Mr. Campbell informed Mayberry's audience that the company will be launching their Internet and telephone banking services to all 16 territories simultaneously by the end of 2004 or early 2005.
"We are now in the pilot phase and we will soon be ready to launch and Jamaica will serve the Internet and telephone back office operations of 10 out of the 16 territories.
According to Mr. Campbell, FirstCaribbean is focusing on two areas that it sees as growth engines the capital markets, consumer loans and residential mortgage market.
CAPITAL MARKETS
He states, "Our capital markets division is in response to the needs of our clients for more diverse and lucrative investment options. Clients have told us that they need access to structured financing at competitive rates and we have listened."
Keisa Ansine, Mayberry's research analyst states: "As part of the Caribbean entity the Jamaican company has access to expertise that as institutional trustee, have acted as custodian, registrar, transfer and receiving agents for a number of initial public offerings, share issues and cross listing for clients in the airline, manufacturing and financial services sectors. Across the Caribbean they have arranged and underwritten debt capital for governments and state owned enterprises.
CONSUMER LOANS/
RESIDENTIAL MORTGAGES
Mr. Campbell said, "We are going after this market aggressively because we think that it is undeserved by other banks. We offer our clients attractive borrowing terms because we think this is an area where the bank can grow."
Ms. Ansine adds, "The institution offers consumer loans and mortgages at the lowest rates, an area which it is aggressively seeking to grow. Their consumer loans rates are approximately 50 basis points below those offered on average in the industry. FirstCaribbean has also held the position of offering the lowest mortgage rates in the industry for over a year."
