<\/p>\n
December 12, 2019 (<\/strong>Castries St. Lucia)<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span>\u2014<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span>A consortium of Eastern Caribbean indigenous banks\u00a0<\/em><\/span>of which<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/span>1st<\/sup>\u00a0<\/span>National Bank St. Lucia Limited\u00a0<\/span>is a member,<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/span>today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase all banking operations in the Eastern Caribbean from Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions, and is expected to be finalized in the coming months.<\/p>\n The consortium was led by Johnathan Johannes, Managing Director, 1st<\/sup>\u00a0<\/span>National Bank St. Lucia Limited, who shared, \u201cWe formed the consortium for the express purpose of expanding the scale of the locally owned financial entities in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union.\u00a0 \u00a0This transaction gives us the size and scale to play a more active role in the development of our respective countries. We see this transaction as the first step in achieving even greater synergies, efficiencies and cross-territory marketing opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n Johannes added \u201cwe are proud and pleased that we as a group of small islands came together to pursue this momentous deal for the benefit of all of our stakeholders.\u00a0 We see this as a significant milestone in the life of our bank as we continue to grow in a way that will allow us to better serve our customers.\u00a0 There are no plans for any immediate changes to the operation of the business\/branches that we are acquiring.\u00a0 In addition,<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/span>where possible, we will adopt best practices of RBC to ensure we maintain the very high-quality service levels that RBC customers have come to expect\u201d.<\/p>\n The five financial entities participating in the sale are: 1st<\/sup>\u00a0<\/span>National Bank St. Lucia Limited, Antigua Commercial Bank Ltd., National Bank of Dominica Ltd., the Bank of Monserrat Limited and Bank of Nevis Ltd.<\/p>\n The sale encompasses *seven branches of Royal Bank of Canada (Antigua, Dominica, Monserrat, St. Lucia (two locations) and St. Kitts and Nevis (St. Kitts two locations)), as well as the regional businesses operating under RBC Financial (Caribbean) Limited (\u201cRBCFCL\u201d); specifically RBTT Bank (SKN) Limited (Nevis), RBTT Bank Grenada Limited (Grenada) \u2013 two locations,\u00a0 RBC Royal Bank Holdings (EC) Limited (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) and RBTT Bank Caribbean Limited (St. Vincent and the Grenadines). Collectively, these operations are referred to informally as \u201cRBC Eastern Caribbean\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSelf-determination is the highest level of empowerment \u2013 and the indigenous banks acquiring this business will now have an increased opportunity to influence the development of their communities,\u201d said Rob Johnston, Head, RBC Caribbean. \u00a0Johannes added, \u201cAnd speaking on behalf of the local banks, we embrace and eagerly anticipate that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n The EC consortium was advised by PwC (JA) led by Wilfred Baghaloo, who added \u201cthis transaction demonstrates that Caribbean businesses have the capacity to come together when the circumstances are right.\u201d<\/p>\n ABOUT 1<\/strong>st<\/sup><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>National Bank St. Lucia Limited<\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>1<\/em>st<\/sup><\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/span>National Bank St. Lucia Limited has been serving St. Lucia and St. Lucians at home and abroad for over 80 years.\u00a0 We are a leading provider of banking services on the island. Over our existence we have grown with an initial investment of XCD50,000, to total assets in excess of XCD796 million.\u00a0 We offer a wide array of services to both the individual and commercial customer.\u00a0 For more information visit our web site at<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/span>\u00a0www.1stnationalbanknline.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" December 12, 2019 (Castries St. Lucia)\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A consortium of Eastern Caribbean indigenous banks\u00a0of which\u00a01st\u00a0National Bank St. Lucia Limited\u00a0is a member,\u00a0today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase all banking operations in the Eastern Caribbean from Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":8309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","category-local-news","category-mainstory"],"yoast_head":"\n