AS it enters a new financial year, FirstCaribbean International Bank Limited has announced that the leading Caribbean bank is re-branding its business to adopt the name of its parent, CIBC. Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mark St. Hill, made the announcement to his staff Wednesday morning.
St. Hill noted that the adoption of the CIBC brand is a show of confidence of the bank’s parent bank, and a sign of its commitment to the Caribbean region. He told his team: “We’ve been on an awesome journey to transform our business over the past three years. We’ve achieved some remarkable things together. We created the type of omni-channel banking experience that allows our clients to bank with us using our award-winning digital services whenever they want to and come into the banking hall when they need to.
“Three years ago who would have thought that our clients would receive funds for loans in their accounts within five minutes; or would be able to deposit cash or a cheque at a remote ABM and have instant access to their cash; or would be able to open their accounts online; or receive a credit card from our branches the same day they applied; or could conduct their banking business almost entirely online from their phones, their laptops or even their watches, without ever setting foot in a branch! We’ve done that with the support of our employees and clients alike – together! And there’s so much more to come!”
St. Hill noted that the regional bank has always had the distinct advantage of being a part of a widely respected and recognised global brand and added that now carrying the CIBC name will benefit CIBC FirstCaribbean even more, as the bank continues down a path of growth in the Caribbean. He added: “We will have the strength of this global powerhouse behind us, while maintaining the Caribbean flavour and knowledge of the marketplace that we have become known for. So, we will honour the past – recognizing where we have come from – while looking excitedly to the future.”
The CEO assured his employees that the speculation about the bank’s future in the region will be put to bed with this show of commitment from the parent bank. The bank recently announced the last two of its divestments of its businesses in the region, with the application to the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten for the sales of its businesses there to Curaçao-based Orco Bank N.V.
St. Hill concluded: “We are pivoting towards growing our company. We’ve created a great company out of the legacy of the two that came before and we are moving forward, looking forward to a bright future for our company. Our bank is turning its full attention to growing our business, consolidating our position in our core markets, and optimizing our strategy of providing a second-to-none omni-channel banking service to our clients.”