A NEW and improved facility of the CIBC First Caribbean International Bank was officially unveiled at the Leeward Highway location in Providenciales on Tuesday (February 28).
Cutting the ribbon to modern building was Deputy Governor Anya Williams, assisted by the bank’s Chief Executive Mark Brown, Managing Director Mark St. Hill and other dignitaries.
The $1.5M remodel saw major works being carried out to the interior of the building with several banking machines being added.
Delivering very brief remarks at the opening ceremony were Brown and St. Hill.
St. Hill noted that the location now sports greatly upgraded automatic banking machine (ABM) services with three new ATMs and a drive through service for those who wish to bank on the go.
He said that four main banking options will be available from the newly improved location, namely: retail banking with the local mortgage centre, business banking, business banking, corporate banking, and a local operations centre.
“The improvements here mirror what we have been doing and will continue to do across our business footprint in the region, and we are doing all of this with one goal in mind – a better client experience,” the director stated.
He further promised that the institution will continue the process of transforming its retail operations as well as the reconfiguration and enhancement of their premises.
Modern Banking
Speaking with the media following a tour of the remodeled building, St Hill commended the local population on adopting more modern banking options.
He said that the population here has adopted the alternative channel – with the Leeward branch being the most highly used in terms of volume.
“TCI is the number three performing country branch right now, and the Leeward branch is currently ranked number five,” the Director said.
Two years ago TCI was ranked number one, and according to St Hill this was gauged on all of their regional branches performance in banking areas such as loans, insurance, consumer loans, mortgages, credit to life and some other products.
He added that this speaks very positively about the economy of the Turks and Caicos Islands, which he said seems to be rebounding.
Asked about one of the chief complaints about the First Caribbean locations in Providenciales – that of ATMs being constantly down, St Hill said this is because of the high usage of the machines.
“When you come and you see it down it’s because we are constantly restocking, so we have to restock it every time it is down, and that is why it went from three machines inside and one outside, to four inside.
“We are having a challenge right now with the drive through and the vendor is bringing in a part now for us to fix that.”
However, he said that this is actually a good problem for them to have.
“Because we have no problem deploying ABMS, this is extremely good. What it says to me is that as a society (TCI) you have adopted modern ways of banking and that is where we want to change the region, we want the region to adopt these methods,” St Hill observed.
Over the past 18 months, the bank has opened four new ATM machines across the country, bringing their total to 11.
TCI Financial Regulation
St. Hill is also quite pleased with the financial oversight and regulations here in the TCI.
“A lot of Caribbean countries are not very good at business facilitation and business facilitation here is good, when we were launching our home and auto insurance it was the regulators here that sat with us and navigated us through it and that is business facilitation.
“So I have to give kudos to the FSC here, because of that it became a domino effect in going through the region, so business facilitation is very important.”
He noted that countries need to have a very strong regulatory environment.
“I have seen where when you take your eyes off of that you get things called the IMF and whole lot of things coming your way.
“TCI is not there, so I think we should be happy that there is a level of fiscal discipline here.
“I think this is one of the few economies that is in a surplus for seven straight years, so there is a give and take,” St. Hill added.
