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Fidelity targets $80m loan ‘Beyond dispute’: But marinas delinquents for bankruptcy demand proof By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
FIDELITY Bank (Bahamas) will “aggressively” pursue delinquent borrowers responsible for $80m in collective consumer loan write-offs via personal bankruptcy judgments, asset seizures and taking liens over their wages. Gowon Bowe, the BISX-listed institution’s chief executive, acknowledged to Tribune Business that these tactics may seem “harsh” and potentially attract criticism but added that the bank will not sit idly by and “allow people to be rewarded for bad behaviour” when they fail to meet their obligations. Speaking after its annual general meeting (AGM) last week, he said management had “indicated” to shareholders that Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) plans to hire “specialist collection skills” as a means to enforce existing judgments against loan defaulters via the Bahamian court system. Affirming that success would “have a tremendous impact on the
t 8JMM AOPU BMMPX QFPQMF UP CF SFXBSEFE GPS CBE CFIBWJPVS t &ZFT TQFDJBMJTU DPMMFDUJPO BTTFU TFJ[VSFT XBHF HBSOJTI t 'PDVTFE PO BOOVBM SFDPWFSZ SBUF BU AGVMM SVOOJOH bottom line”, Mr Bowe told this newspaper that the BISX-listed institution is “fairly confident” it can recover that $80m at a rate of 5-10 percent per year once the initiative hits full speed. Essentially warning long-standing consumer loan deadbeats that there will be no hiding place, he said: “We have a significant portfolio of delinquent loans that we have made full provision for, and in the annual results they are essentially written-off. We are now looking, and I
indicated this at the AGM, at specialist collection skills for the enforcement of judgments. “Our general collections team is focused GOWON BOWE on working with borrowers, but when you have borrowers who are not [responding], and the court have given you a judgment that says they owe, we need to start taking the general practice of enforcing that, whether it be through bankruptcy proceedings, the garnishing of wages or seizure of assets. “We are going to take a very deliberate approach to this portfolio of loans that has been written-off over the years. If persons owed the bank during growth years, the focus was on customers coming in but, if you are in a period of contraction, the
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Minnis: BPL chief says we’re right over Wartsila By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net DR HUBERT Minnis says Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) chief executive has vindicated his administration’s $90m Wartsila investment as he queried whether the utility is increasingly reliant on rental generation once again. The former prime minister said Shevonn Cambridge’s comments at last Thursday’s media briefing by the Prime Minister’s Office not only backed the acquisition of the seven engines but also refuted assertions by Philip Davis KC that “the smell
DR HUBERT MINNIS is rotten” surrounding the deal. And, having reduced BPL’s rental generation requirements from a peak of 115 to 56 Mega Watts (MW) by the time his administration was voted
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Deltec to ‘vigorously’ fight new FTX lawsuit By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN bank and its chairman yesterday denied fresh allegations that they knowingly aided and abetted the multi-billion dollar FTX fraud prior to the crypto exchange’s November 2022 implosion. Deltec Bank & Trust asserted that neither itself nor its chairman, Jean Chalopin, had any knowledge of wrongdoing by Sam Bankman-Fried and his inner FTX circle as they pledged to “vigorously defend... the unfounded allegations” in the latest
class action lawsuit filed against them by the crypto exchange’s aggrieved investors and clients. “Deltec Bank and Jean Chalopin had no knowledge of wrongdoing by FTX or its executives until the numerous public revelations in late 2022,” the Bahamian institution said in a statement responding to Tribune Business inquiries. “Deltec Bank and Jean plan to continue to vigorously defend against the unfounded allegations in the complaint and look forward to their forthcoming
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By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Ministry of Finance’s top official yesterday asserted it was “beyond dispute” that boating fees due to the Government had not been paid amid demands from the marina industry to “show us the evidence”. Simon Wilson, the financial secretary, questioned to Tribune Business what the Association of Bahamas Marinas (ABM) and its members “want me to do” as the concerns surrounding the Government-ordered decision to close the SeaZPass online portal showed no signs of abating. While he described the purported failure to remit yacht charter fees and other boating-related revenues collected by SeaZPass as “indisputable”, an ABM past president called upon the Government to “show us the “proof” that any of these funds were never directly deposited to its
SIMON WILSON Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) account. Peter Maury, who confirmed he was called in to a meeting with Mr Wilson and Ministry of Finance officials regarding their SeaZPass concerns, told this newspaper that the Government has yet to provide any evidence to back-up its non-payment assertions despite requests from himself and the Association. He also argued that the Government had yet to share the results of a
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