The Tribune

By CARA BETHEL

cbrennen@tribunemedia.net

POLICE officials will investigate whether there were any breaches in confidentiality at the Bank of the Bahamas.

This comes after reports alleged the bank had given preferential treatment to politically connected clients.

The Bank issued a statement yesterday saying it felt compelled to respond because media reports had, it said, presented a “highly distorted, incomplete and inaccurate picture of the true facts.”

“The bank feels it needs to set the record straight as far as possible so that its customers, 4,000 shareholders anchored by its majority shareholder, the Government of the Bahamas, and the general public can have every assurance that the Bank continues to operate in a sound and prudent fashion.”

The bank said it operates in accordance with well regulated banking practices and standards and it denied there was political involvement in the granting of loans.

The statement said: “Successive governments, to their credit, have systematically avoided any involvement in credit policies or the granting of credit. Further, virtually all of the loans involving so-called political persons that have been the subject of recent stories in the media were made in the period 2008-2010 when these persons were not even in government. Indeed since 2011 there have been very few new commercial relationships established at all, the bank having decided instead to concentrate on potentially more profitable areas of the retail banking market.

“The time periods just mentioned are significant therefore in dispelling the idea that politics played a role in the granting of loans. That was not true of the government that was in power in the periods just mentioned, nor is it true for the government in power now. Governments and political personalities have always stayed out of the running of the Bank of The Bahamas. Indeed that has been a major part of the bank’s success.”

The loans in question were commercial loans not political, the bank said, where some political figures may have had an interest as investors or shareholders.

“As for leakage of confidential banking information, including names of customers, this would involve the commission of a criminal offence under both the Banks and Trust Companies Act and the Data Protection Act.

“The bank has therefore called in the appropriate authorities, including the police, to determine if and how the breach occurred, and the person(s) responsible for it.

“The stance of the leadership of the bank is to take carefully considered but unequivocal action against all actors who have acted in concert to hurt its fine reputation. Thereafter the law will be allowed to take its course. In the meantime internal steps have been taken to guard against any future breaches.”

Stakeholders should not be concerned about the bank’s ability to manage its loses, because it has $40 million set aside for that purpose, said the bank.

It added that the bank’s loss of $3.5 million last year, the first in 20 years, was not unique and that it is poised to see a return to profitability.