In what seems to be an issue that has no end to its debate, the banking resolution, enacted under the past administration of the Anguilla United Front, is still rife with discussion. It is expected that pertinent information, relative to the resolution, will be forthcoming prior to the proposed sale of NCBA’s shares once the bank emerges from its bridge status in April this year.
Inherent in the banking resolution is a debt of some EC$348 million debt which the people of Anguilla are saddled to repay over decades to come the Premier indicated. But with the bank doing so well as a bridge-bank the Premier was asked whether he deemed the astronomical debt to be necessary, or unnecessary. He replied: “There were multiple options that could have been considered in resolving the banking crisis.”
He continued: “Now, we are eight months into this administration, and we still have not had access to what these options were. We don’t know up to now what the full banking resolution is all about. I recently wrote to the governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank seeking information pertaining to the details of the banking resolution. There was the involvement of various entities as outlined over the radio by the former Premier, who listed multiple entities which were considered in the resolution, but he had never come forth to the people before to tell them, at the time, what the options were. So, I am trying to get to the bottom of it all.”
“One of the other things that is involved in all of this is this building that we sit in right now,” the Premier observed. “Who are the owners of this building?” he asked. “We still have not been able to figure that out, and until that is figured out, or known, I have withheld paying the rent because, in my opinion, due to the lease that we have with the receiver, Government is basically required to pay a monthly rent on a building that the Government should rightfully own, having committed a tremendous amount of money to rescue NBA and CCB.”
The Premier noted: “We have to be very careful with the people’s money. The public purse is one that we will ensure it is spent prudently and for the right purposes.”
On another related matter, the Premier was asked what percentage of NCBA’s shares the government expects to retain when shares go on sale to the public. He advised: “That is still a moving target. We would like to have indigenous ownership of the bank. This would be determined by the interest that Anguillians and native entities and institutions have in investing in the bank. The government expects to retain between 20 to 51 percent of the shares, depending on the interest in the public’s purchase, but certainly we do not feel that the Government should own the bank.”
Currently, the Government of Anguilla is the 100 percent shareholder of the bank. The Premier noted that a divestment committee has been formed to come up with a divestment plan whereby the Government will be surrendering a specified percentage of the total shares. He said the plan is to get an evaluation of the bank’s worth, before drawing up a prospectus for the actual sale of shares to the public. Once again, he stressed that he hopes there would be enough local interest in the purchasing of shares so that the bank can be of an indigenous status.
On a further comment on the banking report, the Premier said that he had been restricted by the East Caribbean Central Bank’ s Monetary Council from releasing the report even in its redacted form, where names were removed. “But I am still going to give a summary of what the report says, so that people would know what happened and what brought us to this point. Some of the actions of directors and managers have led us to this position today.” “This is something that the people of Anguilla need to know,” he said. Asked whether he would release the summarised report prior to the prospectus for the bank’s shares, he exclaimed, “Certainly!”
– Staff Reporter, James R. Harrigan
