Majority shareholder and Chairman of NCB Financial Group, Michael Lee Chin declared at today’s AGM, that the Group is attracting the best in class and that this bodes well for its future.

He pointed to former top Scotia Group Jamaica senior executive and Head of Retail Banking, Perrin Gayle’s decision to leave the AAA-rated international financial services operator and join NCB.

Opening the AGM, Lee Chin said: “We have world-class people here now and they will be restoring the bank to the eminence that it should be not just in Jamaica, the Caribbean but globally. The stock price will come back once we do the right things. We are attracting the right people.”

Fifteen months ago, many of NCB’s then C-suite were let go including Patrick Hylton, Dennis Cohen and Stephen Godden as  NCB floundered and stop paying dividends.

Today it is a different story. Revenues are up so to is profitability and it is now paying out dividends regularly. A new senior leadership team has been formed with Sheree Martin and Malcolm Sadler being promoted. Belinda Williams was brought in from Proven to head up marketing with Bruce Bowen heading up the bank.

A corner was turned as NCB set about keeping the 747 in the air while refurbishing it and clearing up the mess within it. Now it has come through the turbulence and entered azure skies with thrusting, performing engines.

It has a newly configured board. Gary Brown who ran CIBC’s U.S. operations for nine years chose to come to NCB and Jamaican – Canadian Howard Shearer who has served as Hitachi (Canada) CEO for twenty-five years has been added to the board. So too has IMF digital expert, Arvinder Bharath.

NCB now has a quixotic blend of both locals and international personnel on both its management team and Board of Directors.

Chairman Michael Lee-Chin continued: “We now have a great team which speaks to the renovation that has taken place over the last fifteen months. It is a great combination of local and international talent and there is a reason for that. In Jamaica we need to uplift standards so we as a country become investable. 

“ Every company in Jamaica has to ask itself, is this business investable to a dispassionate global investor who is not an owner/operator? Now that could be a person who manages a pension fund and that person just wants to buy shares, buy bonds and make money. So we in Jamaica have to ask is my company investable with that global investor who can invest anywhere in the world? Will that investor choose my company here in Jamaica? If the answer is “ no” then why is my company not investable?

“The reasons will tell you why you have to make it investable. That is the goal of NCBFG, to make sure we are investable to that dispassionate global investor who can buy J.P. Morgan, Apple, Amazon or Microsoft because we are in that space, we are in that game and we have to see ourselves in that space . To be in that space we need a combination of people who have been doing it internationally to blend with our locals who are here. That blend has to be sensitive to our cultural nuances . We are in great hands. I am excited about the future of this company.”

For the financial year ended September 30, 2024 NCB Group posted a net profit of J$23.25 Billion with operating income coming in at J$120 Billion. Total assets for the year under review stood at J$2.32 trillion and its equity has risen to $213 Billion. Net revenues from banking and investment activities came in at $121 Billion.