Aubyn Hill was chairman of NIBJ up to its merger with the Development Bank of Jamaica. - File

The long-planned merger of the National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ) with the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) was completed on September 1, creating a single entity that will wholesale low-cost cash for development-oriented projects as well as hold government equity in private sector-led projects.

Until now, the former function was the province of the DBJ while the NIBJ largely took stakes in schemes which it helped to kick-start with loans.

But Finance Minister Omar Davies announced the merger of the two institutions nearly three years ago, and recently hired the consulting group and auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, paying them $10 million, to tie up the arrangement.

NIBJ officials confirmed that the merger has been completed and that the bank's small staff had on Monday moved into the DBJ's four-storey building at Oxford Road in New Kingston.

The combined assets of the merged operations is just under $29 billion (DBJ $19.2 billion: NIBJ $9.7 billion) to March 2006.

Davies has not yet named a chairman, nor board for the merged entity, which, at least for now, will retain the name of Develop-ment Bank of Jamaica. Aubyn Hill, the NIBJ chairman, had been widely tipped for the chairman's post but he said Tuesday that it remained "the call of the minister."

"I have really enjoyed the privilege of being chairman of NIBJ," said Hill.

But with Hill's attention likely to be now concentrated on his consulting assignment to restructure and turn around Michael Lee Chin's AIC subsidiary in Trinidad, there have been questions over whether he will have the time to 'baby' a merged operation through the transition.

NIBJ last month cut 14 of 40, or just over a third of its staff ahead of the merger and Hill said yesterday that DBJ had cut a similar percentage from its workforce. The bank in April had a staff of 76.

Wayne Whittingham, who took over at DBJ as acting CEO after Kingsley Thomas resigned last year, did not return telephone calls yesterday

Calls to the bank, however, suggest that Whittingham remains the acting head of the merged entity. It was unclear whether a new head was being recruited.

lavern.clarke@gleanerjm.com