Guyana’s second merchant bank, the New Hayven Merchant Bank will soon begin operations with a plan to boost the growth of businesses and the local financing sector.

The new bank which will be headquartered on Church Street in Georgetown was founded by Guyanese-born, US-based financial analyst and accountant Dr. Floyd Haynes.

The New Hayven Merchant Bank was launched on Thursday night, and according to Dr. Haynes, the time is right for the expansion of the local banking sector and the moment must be seized.

“We as Guyanese must seize the moment. There has never been a time in the history of Guyana when there were more opportunities for Guyanese and Guyanese businesses. Opportunities abound, whether you are a mechanic, a plumber, or an electrician…opportunities abound but if you laid them side to side, what’s missing in that equation is the ability to finance ventures, the ability to bring much-needed capital to help finance the start-up, growth, expansion, and transformation and none of that could happen without the much-needed financing”, Dr. Haynes told the launching reception which took place at the Marriot Hotel.

The New Hayven Merchant Bank Founder and Chairman also owns a multi-million US dollar accounting firm in the US that has the US State Department as one of its clients.  Mr. Haynes also served on the Advisory panel for Guyana’s local content policy.

He said when he examined where Guyana is currently as a country and the President’s vision of where it should be, it became clear that there is a big capital and money gap.

“In other words, there simply isn’t enough money to finance the transformation and development of this country, in the country. You can gather up all the monies that are in the country and it’s still not enough. And so some of those monies will come from multilateral (agencies) like the World Bank, IDB, CDB, and other financial institutions and some will probably come from friendly governments in loans and not free money. But a large part has to be private capital”, he noted.

The new merchant bank will seek to provide and support investment services for its clients by connecting them to local opportunities and global resources.

The President welcomed the decision to establish the merchant bank in Guyana, noting that it comfortably suits his vision for a fast-moving and developed country. He said the Government must continue to work on creating an enabling environment for new businesses and financial institutions.

According to President Ali, “when we create the enabling environment, the private sector must pick the slack up, the private sector must be in a state of readiness to take it forward and implement it and bring home the results for the country.”

The officials of the new bank thanked the Bank of Guyana for ensuring it met all of the requirements to be granted its license to operate. An opening date for the new bank has not been set.

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