Best bank: Scotiabank
Tourism is central to the economy of the Bahamas and the country continued to recover from the pandemic-enforced lockdowns with strong GDP growth of more than 4% in 2023. Scotiabank’s business in the country similarly continues to improve from the Covid years and, in 2023, the bank achieved its highest profitability for 15 years with net income of $70.3 million, up by almost 46% year on year. The bank’s management attributes this to a range of initiatives executed in previous years, such as the branch network optimization strategy and revenue enhancement strategies to progressively lower operating costs and boost revenues.
The management team’s strategic focus has been to grow underlying non-interest revenues, boost efficiency by reducing structural costs, and to tighten credit scoring to improve asset quality. The strategy has clearly worked – the cost-to-income ratio fell to 52.5% in 2023, from 58.8% in 2022 and impaired loans fell by nearly one percentage point and the non-performing loan ratio fell to 3.5% (from 3.6% in 2022).
The bank continues to lead the sector and is well positioned to increase this leadership with all core metrics improving steadily. For example, during the fourth quarter of 2023 the bank registered its ninth consecutive double-digit return on equity and closed the year at 18.2%.
Best digital bank: Scotiabank
Online banking transactions at Scotiabank registered a 21% annual increase last year, with more than 79,000 clients enrolled in either mobile or online banking at the end of the review period.
In early 2023, Scotiabank introduced Scotia Access Hub, a client engagement model designed to provide advice to clients with complex financial requirements. This service provides advice across the banking, insurance and wealth units.
The bank also completed an important transformation effort by upgrading its automated banking machines (ABM) across all branches to more efficient intelligent deposit machines. It has also expanded its external ABM network to 50.
Best bank for corporates: Citi
Citi‘s corporate banking business had a good year in 2023 with 99.9% of transactions now taking place on its corporate banking platform, CitiDirect BE.
The bank introduced a trade working capital loan product tailored specifically for Bahamian clients to support their operational cash flow requirements.
Citi worked on a $71 million term loan for a local client, enabling it to purchase supplies to refurbish the South Riding Point oil terminal on Grand Bahama Island.
