The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Trade union leaders yesterday demanded to know “what the casualties are going to look like” as a result of CIBC selling 66.73 percent majority control of FirstCaribbean to a Colombian banking group.

Teresa Mortimer, the Bahamas Financial Services Union’s (BFSU) president, told Tribune Business that she and her members were in “a wait and see position” after her Monday meeting with GNB Financial Group’s chairman produced little to no information about his plans for the “jewel in the crown” of FirstCaribbean’s regional assets.

The Bahamas produced $94m, or 55 percent, of CIBC FirstCaribbean’s total $171m profit for the year to end-October 2019, but Ms Mortimer said Jaime Gilinski was guarded about his group’s ambitions for the pan-regional business because regulatory approval has yet to be received in this nation or any of the territories it operates in.

The GNB Financial Group chairman also met with CIBC FirstCaribbean’s Bahamian staff on Monday at the Baha Mar convention centre, as well as some of the bank’s corporate clients, in what Ms Mortimer described as the “first stop” on his tour of the bank’s territories.

The BFSU president revealed she has written to both K Peter Turnquest, deputy prime minister and minister of finance, and John Rolle, the Central Bank governor, in a bid to “see exactly what” GNB may be planning but has yet to receive an answer from either.

Ms Mortimer added that a meeting on Friday in Trinidad with senior CIBC FirstCaribbean executives, which was attended by herself and all other regional trade unions representing the bank’s staff, similarly failed to produce any useful information on any changes to staffing levels and industrial agreement terms that may result from the GNB Financial Group deal.

“We don’t know what to expect from Gilinski,” she told Tribune Business. “That’s why we wait and see. Our concern is that you’re taking over. What can we expect? What can we look forward to? There’s no takeover without change. That’s our concern.

“Don’t tell us changes are not coming. Only a fool would believe that. What are the casualties going to look like? Tell us what the casualties are going to be. We need to know what that’s all about and what it looks like. It’s a matter of us watching, looking and making sure everything is in favour of our Bahamian people.”

Tribune Business understands that the GNB Financial Group’s wait for regulatory approval in all CIBC FirstCaribbean territories could take up to 12 months, meaning the deal may only receive the final go-ahead in late 2020. Ms Mortimer, though, said CIBC’s merger with Barclays in 2002 was supposed to take as long, but went through after five months.

“The man is waiting to get the word from the regulators,” she added of the meeting with Mr Gilinski. “The unions said before the meeting with the staff that we’d like to see what he looks like and put a few questions to him as we know the Colombians are not union friendly.

“The Bahamas is the jewel in the crown. It’s just a matter of how we’re going to be dealt with. The profits are made in The Bahamas, no if’s, and’s or but’s about it. That could be the reason why Gilinski made this his first stop.”