The planned merger of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and Barclays Bank missed its September 30 launch date, but officials of the banks say the merger will continue as planned.
The new start date for the formation of FirstCaribbean International Bank is the end of the month.
Managing Director of Barclays Caribbean and The Bahamas Charles Pink blamed the delay on legal requirements.
In a letter to staff members Friday, he said, “We write further to our communication dated August 22, 2002 , in which we promised to keep you fully informed should there be any need to revise the anticipated date. We are pleased to report that since that communication, we have continued to make excellent progress towards completion, however, we have not yet received all of the required legal documents.
“Therefore, completion is being deferred for a short period and is now expected to take place before the end of October 2002.
Whilst we hope that it will not be necessary to further revise the completed date, we will keep you informed in the event that changes are required. In the meantime, your employment will continue with Barclay’s PLC until completion.”
Terry Hilts, CIBC’s vice president of banking and corporate affairs in the Bahamas , told the Bahama Journal recently that, “We are still working with the regulators and it’s certainly a very complicated transaction. So, I guess we can understand why.”
He said, “We want it done as soon as possible, but we haven’t set a date by which it absolutely has to be done.”
Mr. Hilts said the merger is taking a little longer than had been anticipated.
“It is. But I think we didn’t anticipate all the issues that could arise,” he said. “It’s not only the Bahamas . We are dealing with 15 countries across the region and it is not a small, simple transaction.”
He said he did not want to comment on the specific issues delaying the merger. “There are so many matters that have to be considered and certainly we know the officials are looking at all of them.”
Central Bank Governor Julian Francis said a few weeks ago that no regulatory approval had been granted yet for the merger because regulators had some very real concerns regarding the merger.
