RFHL Closes Acquisition Of Scotiabank British Virgin Islands Operations

Port of Spain, Trinidad, June 1, 2020– Republic Financial Holdings Limited (RFHL) is pleased to announce that it has completed its acquisition of Scotiabank’s operations in the British Virgin Islands, effective May 31, 2020. This follows approvals from the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, and The Financial Services Commission of the British Virgin Islands, as well as the execution of the General Banking License in the BVI.

The acquisition will add 51 team members to RFHL’s staff complement of approximately 6,077. At the end of October 2019, the BVI operation reported total assets of US $568.5 Million and profits of US $14.6 million. Based on those numbers, the total asset base of the Republic Group will increase to approximately US $15.5 Billion.

Expressing his appreciation to all those who contributed to the successful completion of the transaction, which was originally announced in November, 2019, President and CEO of the RFHL Group, Nigel Baptiste, stated, “I would like to express my thanks to the Regulators and the Government of the British Virgin Islands for their expressions of confidence in the Group. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the staff of both RFHL and Scotiabank who worked tirelessly to make today a reality. I assure all of the Group’s stakeholders that their confidence and efforts are not misplaced and that the Group is looking forward to creating tremendous value in the BVI.”

Baptiste welcomed all new team members and concluded by saying, “The RFHL Group is built on our people, since we believe that is what differentiates us from any other financial institution. It was important to us that the people behind the success of Scotia’s operations in the BVI continued to be the main drivers of the success of our new operations there. I am very pleased to welcome each of them to the Republic family and I look forward to their growth and ours, in the years and decades to come.”