Bahamas - FirstCaribbean International Bank

Pradip Chhadva
Managing Director
Treasury, Sales & Trading
Treasury, Sales & Trading
Transformation and Investment
Corporate Treasury
I am pleased to be writing my first annual report since joining FirstCaribbean
in early 2007. I was very excited by the possibilities offered by this role prior
to joining the Bank, and I subsequently have real confidence that we have
delivered the required transformational change to enable real success.
We have expanded our name from Treasury to Treasury Sales & Trading. The
name change represents our transformation from a support function to a
new Strategic Business Unit; and indeed if we are to succeed as an SBU it is
essential that we are both customer-focused and a prudent risk-taker in local
markets.
I take this opportunity to highlight the key transformational changes:
Regional Treasuries
Regional Treasury centres have been set up and populated in Trinidad,
Bahamas, Curaçao, Jamaica, and Barbados. We’ve had real success in
recruiting highly qualified candidates for Trinidad, Bahamas and Barbados;
whilst promoting strong internal talent for the Jamaica and Curaçao
positions.
The creation of regional Treasuries represents a sharp change of focus from
a purely centralised model to a model in which we have high-level sales
capability on the ground and in close proximity to our clients.
The regional Treasury managers have responsibility for generating stronger
relationships with customers and regulators, delivering optimal solutions for
balance sheet management and further identifying opportunities for FX &
Securities trading in local markets.
Barbados represents a key guide to the future success of this model.
Recruitment has enabled us to significantly grow our small and medium
business client base in Barbados – the net result is significant revenue growth.
It’s a success story which will be replicated across the Caribbean.
This department was created this year with the hiring of a senior Corporate
Treasurer.
Corporate Treasury has responsibility for establishing standard policies and
procedures for the liquidity, interest rate risk and capital management across
the Bank.
In this context and within a short space of time we have:
i. Established local Assets and Liability Committees in the different
countries in addition to the Group Alco
ii.
Designed a new transfer pricing policy that will reflect the marginal
cost of funding
iii. Optimised liquidity management with the implementation of
target ratios and the concept of Core Deposits
The full implementation of the Transfer Pricing policy, Capital Hedge and a
comprehensive Liquidity Policy (to the highest international standards) will
follow. Corporate Treasury in the simplest terms ensures best practice and
compliance for TS&T.
Sales and Structuring
The major focus of Sales and Structuring has been in developing a systematic
marketing approach towards customers and the build of strong relationships
with other SBUs in order to increase the cross-sell activity and overall customer
profitability.
To enable these aims we have:
-Mapped Bank’s top tier customers with relevant information about
risk profile, business activity and product knowledge
-Set up a formal marketing dealing procedure to better serve
our customer base (meeting call, follow up, survey and workshops)
-Introduced, in the Budget 2008 process, “the double count of
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