The Cayman Islands Development Bank experienced tremendous growth since its establishment three years ago, the bank’s chairman said last week.
CIDB chairman Eddinton Powell talks about the bank’s successes. Photo: Alan Markoff |
Speaking at a luncheon at the Wharf Restaurant to launch a $12 million bond issue, Chairman Eddinton Powell noted some of the key operational achievements of the bank since its inception in March 2002.
Among the achievements was a 120 per cent increase in total equity capital and retained earnings from CI$2.9 million to CI$6.4 million through 31 March 2005, Mr. Powell said.
Earlier in the luncheon, Leader of Government Business McKeeva Bush had noted that in its first three years, the bank’s assets had nearly doubled from CI$5.1 million to CI$9.3 million and that its loan portfolio had increased more than 500 per cent.
Mr. Bush pointed out that the bank had been responsive to the needs of the society, which necessitated a balancing of the bank’s ‘commercial concerns of collateral security and profit as well as concerns of wider social good such as strengthening local capacity and expertise.
‘The Bank has at its core, a mission to enhance opportunities for Caymanians who have ambitions to improve their vocational or professional expertise, to realise their entrepreneurial dreams or to own their own homes,’ Mr. Bush said.
The CIDB has been successful in its objectives so far, said Mr. Bush, noting that 112 small businesses had been assisted.
Mr. Bush also said the CIDB had provided relief to clients after Hurricane Ivan, having administered the $8.5 million Housing Recovery Grants programme which has already approved $5.1 million of home repairs for more than 500 families.
Mr. Powell pointed out that the bank had also provided clients with interim financing to bridge the settlement of pending insurance claims.
The CIDB is subject to the same kinds of regulation other banks are subject to by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, Mr. Powell said.
‘(The CIDB) operates under generally accepted banking principles and standards,’ he said.
Mr. Powell said the bank was projecting even bigger improvements of performance in the future.
By June 2010, the bank projects more than $51 million in total balance sheet assets and by June 2015 that figure rises to more than $99 million.
Although the CIDB plays a complementary and supplementary role to commercial banks, Mr. Powell said it focuses on the development of the indigenous sector.
The money raised in the CIDB’s bond offering will be used to further develop that indigenous sector, Mr. Bush said.
‘Via the work of the bank, your investment will be multiplied throughout these islands, creating jobs, increasing business, educating our youth, growing our agriculture and light manufacturing sectors, and building homes,’ he said. ‘Brick by brick, youth by youth, and one business innovation after another, the CIDB is facilitating nation building.’
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