Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne
By Caribbean News Now contributor
ST JOHN’S, Antigua — In a letter on Tuesday to David Parks, managing director, Caribbean East, of the Bank of Nova Scotia in Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne described Scotiabank’s agreement to sell its local banking operations to Trinidad-based Republic Financial Holdings Limited (RFHL) without consultation with his government as “precipitous, presumptuous and reckless of the interests of BNS’s shareholders to whom you owe a fiduciary responsibility.”
Browne also asserted that an earlier letter from Parks contained “inaccuracies of fact”.
RFHL announced in November that it has agreed to acquire Scotiabank’s operations in the Eastern Caribbean, including Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as operations in Guyana and St Maarten.
However, Browne stopped Scotiabank from proceeding with any sale of its operations in Antigua and Barbuda until application is made to the government and approval given.
