Pratt
EDUCATION IS what paved the way for Henry Pratt, 34, to become a vice president at Manufacturers Sigma Merchant Bank.
But he says it is legislation which is transforming his role and the industry in which he works.
"I am a numbers person," he says passionately. "Maths was my number one subject in school. When I was graduating from high school, I got the award for mathematics. That was my thing."
That early success was based on an early emphasis on the value of education.
"I grew up on Delacree Road off Maxfield Avenue in Kingston," he says. "I come from a humble background."
But he grew up with a grandmother who made sure that, "when it came to school, I was never short of anything."
When he went to Campion College, academic achievement was his top priority.
"You came home, you did your homework and studied," he said. "That has been my way." Talent and sacrifice got him an MBA at New York University in 1995, after which he came back to Jamaica and started working with Manufacturers Sigma.
"I was made a vice president in 2002," he says.
And now that portfolio of vice president of corporate banking and investment services is about to change.
Merchant banks now do a lot of investment management business of all kinds, both for corporate and retail clients. It has been legislated that the investment management part of the business be put in a separate institution come April 1.
All the merchant banks will have to split off this business and form a securities dealing company. So the investment services aspect of his `portfolio will be shifted to this new company.
"It is going to change the way we have been managing investments on behalf of clients," he says.
Manufacturers Sigma will focus on traditional banking, deposit-taking and loans etc. and cater to large institutional customers. The new securities dealing arm of the business will focus on investment management which will include the trading of fixed income securities with the general public.
RISK
What the regulators are trying to achieve is to shift the risk associated with investment management away from the merchant banks to an institution which specialises in this activity that will be regulated as such. Investors now place investments with merchant banks with the understanding that the institution will manage the funds on their behalf.
That is to change with the new securities dealers acting as facilitators for clients to invest their funds in specified securities. The legislation aims to ensure that that customers who wish to invest in securities do so with one type of firm, as opposed to what pertains now.
"We are in the midst of getting this done," he says. But there are challenges.
"It is going to take a little while for the market, especially small investors, to understand the new arrangement."
Another challenge is that investors in the market have a short-term orientation, but the majority of financial instruments available are long-term, he says. As well, there is no facility for the institutions to sell instruments, such as a discount window, if investors suddenly change their preferences, as was the case when the Bank of Jamaica introduced its attractive 30 per cent instrument last month.
ISSUES
"There are still some issues to be ironed out before April 1," he says.
Henry has managed to keep a level head in the midst of these challenges. He credits a lot of his professional development to his boss, Mr. Peter Melhado, President of MSMB, with whom he has worked with for the past seven years. "I have learnt a lot about management and business in general from Peter. He has a unique way of engaging and motivating those who work with him. He has helped me with my people management skills in particular".
High anchors in his life are church and his family.
He and his wife Christine, a high school teacher, have been married for three years and they now have a year-old daughter.
He still attends the church in which he was brought up, St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church on Ransford Avenue, off Rousseau Road.
"I have been going there since I was two months old," he says. He also tries to give back to the community and express his belief in the value of education by serving on the board of St. Elizabeth's associated school.
Henry Pratt says that whatever success he has achieved has been based on the firm foundation that was laid for him by his family.