The 3,700-odd shareholders of the National Bank of Anguilla Group of Companies will be delighted to hear that the Bank has now reached its first one billion dollars in assets. The announcement was made on Wednesday, February 27, by Chief Executive Officer, E. Valentine Banks at a press briefing called for that purpose.

Mr. Banks, Marisa Gumbs, Mrs. L. Simpson Deslyn Smith and Timothy Hodge at the press briefing

The National Bank which has been operating since 1985 will be 23 years on March 8. In that year the Bank started with assets of 15 million and has grown considerably both in terms of its physical assets, financial assets and Human Resource assets, Mr. Banks said.

“We are having a week of activities to recognise that, but we also have an extremely important milestone to announce,” he went on. “This is the fact that the Bank has for about eight/nine months exceeded the billion-dollar mark in its assets. “We are extremely proud about that. We are one of only four indigenous banks in the OECS which exceeded the billion-dollar mark. It is a proud moment for us and we are excited to announce it. We can only thank our shareholders and our customers and the Anguillian public at large who have supported us and we are also grateful to our staff. We have grown our staff and ensured that they are capable to manage the institution which is now expanding into a much larger one.”

Mr. Banks said that a paper from the Bank’s Corporate Secretary, had shown that the bank had doubled its size every four to five years. “We expect that in the next five years we will be a two billion bank and we are looking forward to that,” he added.

The next speaker was Timothy Hodge, the Bank’s Company Secretary and Chairman of the HR Committee. “The Anguilla banking market includes two international banks and so it is really truly remarkable that the National Bank of Anguilla has over 50% of the local banking market,” he stated. “In the further context, Anguilla has about 3 % of the population of the OECS which is the ECCB area; but National Bank alone has 6.5 % of the 15.2 billion dollars in assets in this Eastern Caribbean Currency Union so that shows that we are batting way above our size and leading the way.”

Mr. Hodge continued: “Over the 23 years of NBA’s existence it has grown 67 times from 15 million to one billion dollars plus. This is truly remarkable. As Mr. Banks rightly said, a lot of this growth has come from the fact that Anguillians have had the opportunity to become shareholders in the bank. There are some 3,700 plus shareholders in NBA which has really served them well over these 23 years.”

CEO making Announcement

He said that the National Bank Group of Companies will be celebrating the 23rd Anniversary of its commencement of services to the people of Anguilla. On Sunday, March 2 there will be a Service of Thanksgiving at the Bethel Methodist Church. Saturday, March 8, will be a gala event in celebration of the staff which had been a very key factor in the banks’ goals and achievements.

He disclosed that an internationally-known life coach and network journalist, motivational speaker and author, Jennifer Lewis-Hall, will be working with the 101-member staff. She has close connections in Anguilla, being the grand daughter of the late Bianca Richardson of South Hill.

She is going to be the keynote speaker during the celebration staff event and will also conduct a training exercise for them. “There will be three days of training specifically for staff on Monday March 10 and Wednesday March 12 and on the intervening day, March 11, she is going to speak to Supervisors, Managers and Directors.”

Mr. Hodge added that customers will also be celebrated on Monday, March 10, with a Customer Appreciation Day.

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