Sep 2011 Financial News

Young replaces Evans as BATT head

Sep 22, 2011

There’s new leadership at the Bankers’ Association of Trinidad and Tobago (BATT), following the recent low-key election of a new Board of Directors.

The new BATT president is managing director of Scotiabank TT, Richard Young. He was elected on August 4 along with a new vice-president and treasurer. They are, respectively, Group CEO of First Citizens Larry Howai and managing director of Trinidad operations at First Caribbean International Bank Ian Chinapoo. There are two other titled positions on the Board but these are appointed not elected posts. The corporate secretary is Marilyn Aqui and the executive director is Kelly Bute-Seaton.

The recent election was held at Scotiabank’s corporate box at the Queen’s Park Oval because that was the next location in line for a BATT meeting. The association meets once every two months, each time at a property owned by one of its eight members.

They are Bank of Baroda; Citibank TT Limited; First Caribbean International Bank; First Citizens; Intercommercial Bank Limited; RBC Royal Bank; Republic Bank and Scotiabank. BATT elections are held every two years, with the out-going vice-president assuming presidency for the next term, hence Young’s election as president for the 2011 to 2013 term.

Scotiabank’s managing director served as vice-president from 2009 to 2011, under the presidency of Citibank TT’s managing director, Dennis Evans. Treasurer at the time was Group CEO and managing director of Intercommercial Bank, Hugh Duncan.

“The vice-president functions on behalf of the president in his absence (while) the treasurer is elected in during at the beginning of the two-year term at the AGM (Annual General Meeting),” Bute-Seaton explained. It is also customary for the BATT president or senior staff from his/her bank to chair its nine sub-committees: Fraud Awareness; Anti-Money Laundering and Compliance Awareness; Marketing; Credit Risk and Market; Finance and Operational Risk; Legal; Economics; Trade; Inter-bank Business Continuity and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME).

Apart from Young or a member of his bank, each of the remaining seven BATT members or their representatives sits on all nine sub-committees.

In addition, Bute-Seaton explained that BATT members themselves sit on “Boards and Committees of a myriad of stakeholder groups in addition to those within the banking and finance sector.”

Although the Bankers’ Association did not issue a public statement about its August 4 election, it circulated the results to more than 70 stakeholders.

Namely all Government ministries, the Central Bank, all other banks in TT including the Export-Import (ExIm) Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), financial regulators, corporate conglomerates, Chambers of Industry and Commerce and energy companies.

BATT’s election results were also distributed to Non-Governmental Organisations, Community-Based Organisations, the Airports Authority, educational institutions, the Office of the Financial Services Ombudsman, the Trinidad and Tobago Securities and Exchange Commission, accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC) and other special purpose groups. The Bankers’ Association of TT is a non-profit organisation, established in 1987, to provide guidance for local banks on international best practice, to educate the public on their financial options, to lobby on its members’ behalf as needed and to collaborate “with the Central Bank and other local regulatory and business agencies for the development of the banking sector as well as enhancing their support for the productive sectors of the economy,” the BATT website stated.


Source:
By Sasha Harrinanan
Newsday
Thursday September 22, 2011

http://www.newsday.co.tt/businessday/0,147677.html