The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Free National Movement (FNM) yesterday pledged to sell-off the Government’s majority stake in Bank of The Bahamas if re-elected to office on September 16.

Unveiling its manifesto, the party promised to “divest the Government of its shareholdings in Bank of The Bahamas to a qualifying entity through an open and transparent process” although no further details were provided.

The BISX-listed institution, in which the Government holds a collective 82 percent stake via the Public Treasury and National Insurance Board (NIB), cost taxpayers more than $300m via two bailouts, a rights issue and other measures that were take to rescue it and prop it up during the Christie and Minnis administrations.

Previous efforts to find a buyer for Bank of The Bahamas have proven fruitless, the last Christie administration having attempted to interest Trinidad & Tobago’s Republic Bank, but its cash-strapped finances and ongoing multi-million dollar losses turned off potential suitors.

Prior to COVID-19 it had shown signs of returning to consistent, albeit minimal, profitability but has a long way to go to claw back a nine-figure accumulated deficit and fully repair its balance sheet. Minority shareholders have long called for the Government to find an exit route, but any sale would be unlikely to get anywhere near recovering what was invested to bail it out.

Elsewhere, the FNM also promised to introduce an electronic Know Your Customer (KYC) platform to make it easier for businesses and residents to open bank accounts. The party pledged to “further streamline banking regulations including the introduction of an electronic KYC platform that will make it easier for residents and businesses to open bank accounts and change banking relationships”.

Fred Smith QC, the Callenders & Co attorney and partner, has long campaigned for such a system. He told this newspaper earlier this year that the Government needed to pass a “KYC Once” Act, which would permit the issuance of a certificate confirming the holder is a legitimate client and has passed all required checks, as a means to slash the due diligence bureaucracy.

“I repeat my encouragement to the Government to legislate a ‘KYC Once’ Act, which will greatly facilitate ordinary people who are, as we all should be, innocent until proven guilty, and facilitate business. But, under the current regime, domestic and international, we must all squeeze the camel through the eye of the KYC needle, and business and personal affairs come to a grinding halt,” Mr Smith said.

“I don’t know if it’s the same in other jurisdictions; I don’t hear that it is. Bermuda, Cayman, the Channel Islands and Panama.... many of the other financials services jurisdictions don’t seem to have the same KYC constipation as The Bahamas has. KYC is repeatedly constipated.”

Mr Smith had previously urged that the certificate issued under a “KYC Once” Act be accepted by all Bahamas-based financial institutions as validating the holder’s credentials, thus eliminating the need to “reinvent the wheel” and undergo the same scrutiny at every bank that a company or individual conducted business with.

He argued that this would eliminate “a huge unnecessary expense” that has plagued dealings with the Bahamian banking industry for the past two decades, thereby lowering costs and resulting in a much-needed improvement in the ease of doing business.

On the labour front, the FNM promised to “review an increase in the minimum wage” and “continue to ensure that all Heads of Agreement recognise workers’ rights” while ensuring the National Insurance Board (NIB) is “properly funded” to carry out its mandate.