The Central Bank of Guyana has denied Republic Bank’s planned takeover of the operations of Scotiabank in Guyana.
The two banks have been informed of the Central Bank’s decision, according to Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Gobin Ganga.
Dr. Ganga told News Source this evening that a complete evaluation of the takeover plan was done and a decision was made not to grant approval to the proposed move.
He said there were a number of factors that influenced the decision, including competition and concentration in the market.
It was back in November 2018 that Scotiabank announced plans to sell all of its Guyana operations to Republic Holdings Limited, which is the parent company of Republic Bank.
The Government of Guyana immediately raised its concern and pointed out that with Republic Bank currently holding 35.4% of the banking systems assets and 36.8% of deposits in Guyana, its acquisition of Scotiabank would push its stake in the local banking sector to 51% of both assets and deposits.
Scotiabank has moved to sell out its operations in eight other Caribbean nations. Approval has been granted in at least seven of those nations, with Antigua being the other country strongly objecting to the takeover plan.
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