Scotiabank selling its BVI branch to Trinidad-based bank

Scotiabank made an announcement that it has reached an agreement for the sale of 100% of the shares of its British Virgin Islands branch to Trinidad-based Republic Financial Holdings Limited, which is the owner of the Republic Bank group of banks. The new agreement is the latest in a series of transactions the Canadian bank was making to unload its Caribbean assets, after the sale of its banking operations in Anguilla, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Maarten and St. Vincent and the Grenadines to Republic Bank.

The BVI agreement is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. The Canadian bank did not disclose the terms of the agreement, but the notice on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange put the $120 million price.

In 2017, according to the survey by the Caribbean Association of Banks, 21 of the 23 banks in 12 Caribbean countries had lost at least one correspondent banking relationship, defined as an agreement between foreign and domestic bank where a correspondent account is established at one bank for the other.