When AlterBank opened its doors in 2023, the company vowed to go above and beyond to meet the needs of its clients.
An alternative financial institution in Rodney Bay, AlterBank provides international banking services to individual and corporate clients outside of St. Lucia, offering peace of mind in an unpredictable economic landscape.
The VOICE met with the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Antonio José Romero Esclusa, and Aurea Lafeuillee, General Manager.
“We see ourselves as a digital boutique bank for corporate customers in the region. What that means is, basically, we’re able to provide a banking platform, very leveraged in systems… that allow customers to access information, transactions [and] products anywhere in the world,” Romero Esclusa explained.
“Why corporate customers? Because we believe there’s a huge gap between what local banks in the region are able to provide for them; traditional services like your typical payroll, point of sales cards. But when it comes to cross border transactions like import, export or doing business elsewhere, that’s usually not the core business of local banks,” Romero Esclusa said, adding that “the level of service that certain corporate customers are looking for is just not there.”
“When they try to access top tier banks in Europe and the U.S, if you’re not large enough, they probably won’t take care of you and provide the services you’re looking for so that’s the opportunity we saw right there. AlterBank is a Visa Principal Member, which means that we have our own license. We have full capacity of issuing credit card and debit card programmes, digital, virtual, etc. so we’re able to support those businesses, for them to pay for whatever services they need,” Romero Esclusa added.
The bank provides the highest level of care and attention to its clients and enables growth through a customer-centred approach. It also promotes financial security.
According to the CEO, “Latin America has a lot of political movements and from time to time it can [become] unstable, so people try to protect their assets and businesses. One way to do that is to be able to hold part of their operations in more stable currencies, U.S. dollars, and euros, which usually local banks… don’t provide for them. If they’re doing business abroad or cross border between their country and others they need a bank account that allows them to hold funds… also to be able to pay their providers; send money to the U.S., Europe, China [etc.] to pay for whatever they need … so that’s where we come in.”
“The idea now is to keep building our technology stack to build a more efficient, process automation integration system and so forth, that will allow us to have better and more competitive unit economics, meaning, every transaction we do, every person that works at the bank, is more efficient because their efforts are leveraged with technology so they’re able to do more with less, etc., and have our team focus on the activities that actually add value to the bank and downstream to the customer,” he added.
Like her CEO, Aurea Lafeuillee brings a wealth of experience to the company. She’s been in the banking industry for almost two decades and “I can bring that to the table to assist [with] the future growth of the bank,” she stated.
“We began making the bank operational from about May of 2023 setting up information and accounting systems, building our customer base and making sure we know what’s happening in our environment,” Lafeuillee explained.
“People seem to be sceptical about banking with international financial institutions but we want to assure the general public that we have our policies and compliance program in place to ensure that their funds are safe with us. We’re properly regulated and we’re looking forward to serving our customers,” Lafeuillee added.
AlterBank’s goal is to address your financial needs, directly – “a team of committed financial partners, embodying respect, credibility, and the teamwork to create your fortune,” as stated on their website.