Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne urged two of the nation’s banks to move to acquire the Antigua & Barbuda operations of CIBC First Caribbean International Bank (CIBC FCIB) after a consortium of banks in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) announced last week that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the branches and banking operations of the bank.
The four members of the consortium – Bank of St Vincent & the Grenadines Ltd, National Bank of Dominica Ltd, Grenada Co-operative Bank Ltd, and St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Ltd – said the agreement is subjected to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.
Browne said the Eastern Caribbean Amalgamated Bank (ECAB) and the Antigua Commercial Bank (ACB) should consider a bid for the CIBC FCIB operations and seek to prevent the bank selling its assets to a foreign entity.
Until regulatory approvals are obtained, and the transaction closed, operations at all institutions will continue as they currently do.
