Banking in region still challenging

Rik Parkhill, CEO of CIBC FirstCaribbean.

Rik Parkhill, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at CIBC FirstCaribbean, believes economic challenges may persist this year in the region, but there are still bright areas in terms of banking.

Business Monday spoke to the CEO last week at a Customer Appreciation Day at the CIBC FirstCaribbean Rendezvous branch, Rendezvous, Christ Church in Barbados. When asked about the outlook for the bank this year, he explained: “2013 is projected to be more or less like 2012, but we at FirstCaribbean believe it will be a bit better this year because we have used this period of low growth to increase our level of investment in new services and products and to enhance our customer experience. We believe all of those initiatives will pay off when growth starts to increase on the back of the recovery in the US and Europe.”

In terms of banking in the region, he stated: “There are certainly still economic challenges throughout the region – the bank is a reflection of our customers and many of them are still having difficulties and that probably would not change until the level of economic growth picks up.”

“There are some signs in the northern Caribbean that it is starting to modestly recover on the back of higher US growth rates, but the southern Caribbean – including Barbados – is still quite challenged because it is more leveraged to the UK and European market,” he noted.

“However, amidst the challenges, we are finding opportunities to grow and certainly expand our retail banking footprint, trying to enhance our service levels and roll out new products for our customers. We believe that customer service will be a differentiating factor going forward and we are trying to make strides to ensure we operate the best customer service among the banks in the region.

“We have also embarked on a programme of continuous improvement in terms of reduce loan turnaround approval time, reduce account opening times, but there is also a comprehensive programme of listening to our customers,” he added.