Both Sides of The Coin: The Story of The Central Bank of Barbados 1972-2017

120 Institutional changes in the banking sector Although the domestic banking system remained sound throughout the period, occasionally the Bank was required to address some sensitive issues and concerns. In 1991, it managed the winding up of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) following closure of that institution’s branches by the Bank of England. During the following two years, the Bank engineered the sale of BCCI’s assets to Mutual Finance Company Ltd (which led to the establishment of the Mutual Bank) and collaborated with the Ministry of Finance and the IDB in the restructuring of the BNB. Some aspects of the operations of Caribbean Commercial Bank also required close scrutiny during the mid to late 1990s. During the early years of the 21st century, as the banking system consolidated in search of greater efficiency, the Bank dealt with a spate of mergers and acquisitions. In 2002, there was the amalgamation of the branch business of Barclays Bank and CIBC to form a new entity - First Caribbean International Bank. During the following year, the BNB, the BNB Finance and Trust and the Barbados Mortgage Finance Company were sold to Republic Bank Ltd. of Trinidad and Tobago and the Bank of N.T. Butterfield and Son Ltd. bought the assets of Mutual Bank of the Caribbean Inc. One of the non-bank financial institutions, General Finance Corporation, also changed ownership to become Signia Financial Group Inc. In 2004, Caribbean Commercial Bank was sold to RBTT Bank Ltd., becoming RBTT Bank (Barbados) Ltd. Towards the end of the period, the assets of the Bank of Butterfield and RBTT Bank were taken over, respectively, by First Citizens Bank and Royal Bank. These changes provided the impetus for the preparation of a draft framework for consolidated supervision of financial groups. Apart from the mergers there was some intra-company restructuring; in 2009, one branch of a bank was converted to a subsidiary operation and one near bank was upgraded to a bank under Part 2 of the FIA, offering its services to a niche clientele.