Jul 2014 Financial News

Smart steps into banking at First Citizens

Jul 02, 2014

Former Attorney General Anthony Smart has already served his country well, but after an almost 12-year hiatus from active public life, the sprightly 67-year-old is ready for a new challenge as chairman of the First Citizens, the crown jewel in the State-owned First Citizens Financial Group.
“I think what I will bring is my grey hair—my many years of experience as a lawyer, as a former minister, as a public figure and Member of Parliament. My life’s experience. My ability to deal with people and my experience in leading people is fundamentally what I will bring to the board,” Smart told the Business Express last Thursday in an interview at his office at the bank’s corporate headquarters, Queen’s Park East, Port of Spain.
Smart was nominated in May by Finance Minister Larry Howai to replace attorney Nyree Alfonso as chairman, after she announced her retirement from the board during the Group’s annual general meeting earlier that month.
He was officially installed to the board on June 17, after his nomination was ratified by shareholders at a special general meeting called to elect six new board members, including the chairman.
Smart and his new crew have taken the helm of the First Citizens ship at a time when the bank’s image is going through a rough patch.
“It’s a new board. This dispensation will learn from the mistakes of the last one and will seek to continue to grow the bank and I think it is an opportunity for a new face to be put on the bank,” Smart said.
What mistakes in particular, the Business Express asked?
Smart side-stepped directly addressing them, saying, “I think those mistakes are in the public domain and we will seek to learn from those mistakes but we aren’t going to dwell on them and move forward from there,” he said.
The Alfonso-headed board faced heavy public criticism for the way it was perceived to have mishandled a share purchase by the bank’s former chief risk manager Phillip Rahaman, failing to stop or even investigate properly his acquisition of 659,588 shares during the bank’s initial public offering (IPO) last September; he subsequently sold 634,588 of his First Citizens shares in January for a profit of close to $13 million; the Sunday Express had first reported those shares were sold to his cousin Imtiaz Rahaman, his aunt Alia, and five companies owned by the Rahaman family. Alfonso in particular was denounced by several commentators for statements she had made in the media about morals and ethics in the entire affair. The board’s role as an overseer of bank operations was also called into question. Alfonso also faced criticism for her concurrent role as chairman of the bank, as well as its eight subsidiary companies, netting her a monthly director’s fee of over $60,000 a month.
Smart, for the moment is only the chairman of the bank, saying that the matter had been engaging the attention of the Finance Minister and the bank’s corporate secretary Sharon Christopher, who will determine if he should sit on any subsidiary board.
Smart admitted that, when he was but a regular citizen, he did note the Rahaman incident as it was being reported in the media, but did not pay much attention to it.
“I didn’t ponder on it. Now I will note and ponder and opine and everything and discuss with the board,” he said.
This board—at least under the directive of this chairman—intends to leave the running of the bank to the technocrats and executive management.
“My role really, and I want it to be the board’s role, is to have what the lawyers call a ‘watching brief’. In other words we aren’t going to be an executive board. We are of course responsible for policy and direction overall but we are going to let this competent team of technocrats and executives run the bank. That is my approach to it and we will intervene from time to time as a rudder to steer. I am not a banker. We are seeking to put in some members of the board who have some banking experience. But the expertise lies in the management team. It is still to be discovered where we can help offer our intervention but the most obvious is the public offer issue we have to deal with in some way,” he said.
He does however, see himself as one who can be the face of change, as well as a calm presence as the bank seeks to manoeuvre its course into more pacific oceans.
“I thought about it and I feel that I am still young enough, vibrant enough to make a contribution in a way that doesn’t brand me as a politician… this is a way for me to continue to give some kind of service that will redound to the benefit of the country as a whole. It has come at a difficult time for the bank but in all humility I think my presence here will assist in seeing the bank over this hurdle—it’s virtually already there,” he said.
Smart said he has confidence in the bank and its financial and operational performance, still believes that the population has those feelings as well.


Source:
By Carla Bridglal
Trinidad Express
Wednesday July 2, 2014

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/business-magazine/Smart-steps-into-banking-at-First-Citizens--265477211.html